


Fishtail

by Ribbonshalos



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Blood, Character Death, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Magic, Mermaid Genji, Sea Witch Moira
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-05-09 00:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14705777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ribbonshalos/pseuds/Ribbonshalos
Summary: The summer before Angela's eleventh birthday, a boy with a fishtail taught her how to swim.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was really inspired by an anon asked I received on my tumblr, so have Mercy and Mermaid!Genji finding each other again.

Angela isn’t sure what she’s doing until she’s slipping the sun dress over her swimsuit and jumping into her car. She drives with direction, but it’s loose and weak at best, and completely silly at worst. 

The curves of the blacktop, and the little convenience store by the beach are the lines in a palm she’s held so many times before. Evening coming back from years of schooling, it molds easily into the shape of her memory. 

The sun is setting, rushing the beach goers and any later partiers off of the beach’s sand. Tonight, a loneliness is twisting Angela’s ribs. Or perhaps, a sense that a piece of her home is gone, strums up and down her heartstrings. 

The little beach still hides away behind a rocky road and dense layers of trees. Angela used to run to it in bare feet, but now it bumps and shakes her little car. Stopping before the final curtain of dense foliage and leaves, Angela leaves the vehicle with a slow weight to her limbs. A summer breeze plays with her sundress. Still, Angela holds her arms to keep back a deep chill from her skin.

Her little paradise is a lot smaller then she remembers, but it still holds three boulders half submerged in the water on the far right of the shore. Multiple rocks pepper the shore. It’s dark edges make it undesirable to others who may have come across this little strip of sand but Angela knows the many rocks let her be in the water and not drown. Funny, she didn’t know how to swim yet at the age of ten, but she wanted to act like she did. 

The summer before her eleventh birthday, she learned how to swim. Right here, in this rock infested beach. 

In the fading gold, Angela slips her flip flops off. The water and sand hasn’t lapped between her toes since she went off to get her doctorate. Now, it’s like she’s stepping back into her own house. The cool rush of the liquid sends shivers down her arms. Angela breathes, tasting salt and lime. 

There was no comparison to the green of his tail. It shined like magic. The boy with the fishtail told her he _ did  _ have magic. 

He was quite insulted when Angela said that his magic is dumb if he can’t make her swim. Angela was disappointed, too, but the boy was determined. He insisted he’s seen the humans swim enough to show her how to.

The water laps over her feet, spilling to her ankles as she steps further in. 

Genji. That was his name. Her parents thought it was such a strange thing to call an imaginary friend, but she didn’t relent. The boy with the green fishtail was very real.

She thought so, anyways…

Angela keeps a slow pace of entering the ocean. Her ocean, she once thought. Her ocean, and her friend. 

She was scared of floating in too deep of water without the nearby anchor of a boulder. The fish boy was persistent though. His gentle but constant coaxing eventually brought her off the rocks and against his person. 

“The water holds you,” he had said, still easing her worry with bright explanation. “You just have to be calm and let it hold you, and then you can start moving your legs and arms.”

She spent the first days simply floating. The water lapped gently around them both, and she could peer at his sparkling tail through the mirage of water. Being in the water, without having to swim in it was nice, comforting. His arms always made sure she stayed afloat, but he kept telling her to swim. 

It holds her now. The cool sensation rises against her calves as the sand greets her every step. 

Genji was smart, but he couldn’t demonstrate well. The stroking of his arms was perfect, but she needed to know how to kick her feet, and he frowned at the thought of her toes. A few hours of showing off his tail, and how the fins flicker and slip through the blue was mesmerizing, but her legs couldn’t compare. So, she started out stroking with her arms. He held onto her ribcage and made sure her hands cut through the water like his sparkling fin. 

Her imagine friend, that’s what her parents referred to Genji as. A dream brought to life in the absence of company. But he was real… his long fins spread out like curtains of seaweed. He spoke about leaving his group, his family, just to see a human. 

The swimming lessons drove her to watch any movie or read any book with a pretty mermaid on the cover, but there was very few mermen, and even fewer boys with fishtails. Angela was always disappointed. The fantasies never matched what she saw under the summer sun. 

After two weeks, and Genji’s persistence, Angela started kicking her way through the shallows. It was terribly wild and without direction, but she stayed afloat. Water splashed everywhere from her frantic flailing of limbs. Slowly, she grew used to the salt on her skin, and the constant blue all around. The shift and weight of the water moved with her. For the first time, Angela swam.

Genji swam with her. He was joy and splashes. She never matched his speed and agility in the ocean, but he played around her as she swam out deeper. No fear anchored her to the shoreline. Several times, the slick sensations of his scales accidentally bumping against her made her complain, but the touch was different. Not quite a fish. Close, but not quite.

They swam for four, beautiful, sunny days. 

Angela steps deeper into the water, clearing her throat. Her sundress now dips into the tide. The ocean presses the fabric back against her thighs. It should have been discarded the moment she touched the water, but her mind is reminiscing too much. 

She came back one day, and he was gone. So, she waited on the beach. She waited because she didn’t want to swim without him. The strange boy with the fishtail. She waited until her parents shrill calls came from the trees, and she started crying when they scooped her up in frantic worry. To leave without swimming with Genji was unimaginable, but her parents carried her away. 

The boy with the fishtail was never seen again, no matter how many times she ran away from her parents to make sure. 

She had eventually forgotten about him, but the lessons were never last. No one could deny that that summer she did learn how to swim. Her parents told the other parents that she was self taught when they complied how swift she was in the water. Eventually, Angela saw it as imaginary too. Just a dream, something to help her swim. She moved on with her life.

But coming back home… The ocean stirred something back to life inside of her. An emotion, a thought, a breath. The vibrate green of scales and long, curtains of fins spraying out in the water. 

Angela closes her eyes. Her ocean dipped fingers come to clasp together in front of her heart, as if she’s praying, or trying to touch the sensation growing in her chest. 

“Angelfish? What are you doing just standing there?”

Her eyes open. This voice is different, grown, but it raises the rate of her heartbeat. Her gaze sweeps the surface, until out besides a boulder slick with the tide and moss, a face grins. A man, no longer smaller than her, stays in the ocean. Black hair drips water droplets back into the sea, and his eyes shine with mischief and glee. 

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to swim,” he exasperates.

“Genji…” she whispers, then, “Genji!” 

Launching herself into a dive, Angela falls into the ocean, sundress and all. She cuts through the water like one of its own. Like a daughter coming back home. He is only a few yards away, but she keeps raising her head to see, to cement his silhouette against the setting sun. 

She find his arms, even as he opens his hands to her. Her grip tightens like a vice, but he stays within her reach. His grin still shines like the sun. Through the blue water, an even brighter, vibrate tail of emeralds shines. Fins floats through the water like it’s own forest of flowing seaweed. Grown and matured. His bare chest holds details and sculptures of muscle, no longer young and skinny. The grip she holds onto him with feels the warmth of his person. There is a steadiness and strength to him. 

“Genji,” she breathes out again. Together, his tail flickers and her feet kick gently through the water. It creates their current, unbound by anything but them. 

“Angelfish,” he says, taking a moment to move her wet hair out of her face. “You swim so fast! And you’re so big now, I was wondering if I was seeing your mother for a second.”

“Speak for yourself, fishboy,” she finds herself laughing, feeling the salt touch upon her cheeks. “You’re not a little shrimp anymore.”

He refused to call her Angela, saying Angelfish sounds better. And if she had a tail, it would look like an angelfish. The name made her grumpy at first, but she found giving her own pet names in return made him grumpy, and her, less so. 

“Little shrimp? Nothing about me was ever a little shrimp,” he starts, mock offense. 

“My toes went past the ends of your fins, remember?” Angela presses, watching him recollect that one, distant summer. 

She is older than him by two years, and it showed in her length. At the age of ten, Angela took pride in being taller than others, especially boys. When Genji denied this, she made him hold her in the water so she could stretch her toes as far as she could. That day, she found two things: 1. Genji’s fins are ticklish against her skin and 2. Angela’s body length outstretched his, tail and all. 

“Hmm, I do remember, but that was some time ago, no?” 

Suddenly, he’s enveloping her in a hug, pulling her through the water. It’s natural to slip her arms over his neck as his hands wrap around her waist. Her sundress is already wet, but the ocean droplets on his chest touches upon her skin. The strong flip of his tail keeps both their heads above the surface. The salt stains his skin, but something strong touches through his hair. Driftwood and the smell of summer. 

“Try stretching your toes now, Angelfish,” he challenges. Amusement sparkles in his irises as she lifts her brow in acceptance. 

She relaxes her legs, bumping and pressing against the familiar, green scales. The slick sensation of his magic tail awakens more pieces of her memories. Entirely in his grasp, she stretches herself. Genji watches her eyes, keeping them level for the record. 

She hardly reaches his fins, but they wave through the water anyways. Brushing against her bare skin, she shivers for a moment as Genji laughs. The soft touch of royal green fins stills her heart. 

“Who’s a little shrimp now?” Genji asks, triumphant. 

“Barely,” Angela counters, but a smile pulls her lips upwards. She still holds onto him tightly, as if he might disappear with the tide. 

His gaze settles against hers. The grin, once proud and victorious, now softens. A harder, tough face looks to her, lost of boyhood, but mischievousness still stirs in the light brown of his eyes. The Genji that snuck away from his group of mermaids to teach a human how to swim is still holding her in the water.

“Hello, Genji.” She finds her voice thick for a moment. Hundreds of demands and thousands of questions settle for just telling him this. The water gently laps at their shoulders as she tightens her hug. Real, and truly in her embrace. 

“Hello, Angelfish,” he breathes after so many years, still flickering his tail to keep them afloat.


	2. Chapter 2

She’s breathless and gasping all at once. This day, she carefully removes her beach cover up. Her feet slip into the water. Most often she’s the first to arrive to their little oasis, but she doesn’t mind the few minutes to ponder upon a rock.

The first time she had to wait for him, a terrible fear overwhelmed her chest. It was that day on the beach when he left her waiting all over again, but he relieved her with his splashing tail.

Eagerness takes her mind. The soft confession of Genji’s voice still melts into her skin and warms her soul. It felt only natural for her to confess the same yesterday. It appears like a dream now. Many weeks have passed since their reunion, but the love they still share has grow greater from the childhood they both had.

She wants to be wide awake against him, in the water again.

“Angelfish.”

His voice finds her as the ocean touches over her hips. A smile lifts her lips, finding him just as excited as she. He waits for her to dive out into the deep. Just past the jagged lines of rocks jutting out from the sand is when his hands find her waist.

He’s held her so many times before, but a new meaning moves through their skin. As his tail softly flickers to keep them both above the water, she rests against him. Tentatively, as if still unsure, Angela cups the back of his neck. Her gentle hold mirrors his irises as he leans in to her.

Another kiss. Another taste of the ocean. Another fear diminished.

“Hello, Genji,” she murmurs when they part. Forbiddenly, pink colors her cheeks. It’s terrible how bashful she’s become at the sudden flood of affection and dotting he gives her, but he gives it so willingly. Like it’s his own need to touch her.

“Hey, Angelfish,” he smiles, amused at her pink cheeks. A brush of his scales against her leg causes her to shiver. He still holds her steady. “Do you like that?”

She lifts her head, shifting her hands to hold onto his shoulders better. Their chests are so close. The beat of his heart raises her own. Her feet kick, but not as powerfully as his tail.

“Liked what?”

“Kissing,” he says, as if it’s obvious. He shakes his head for a moment, freeing it of excess water droplets. “You always turn so pink from it, I don’t remember if that’s a good or bad sign from a human.”

Her brow raises at the question. Considering herself for a moment, Angela kicks herself up in the ocean. Her lips find his forehead, before gracing down the line of his nose. A soft peck touches the tip of his nose, before she falls back down to his lips. She tastes his stunned mouth, before pulling away to his awed eyes.

“I really, really like kissing,” she says. “And mermaids can turn pink, too, Genji.”

He clears his throat, displaying this trait clearly.

“Right. Hmmm.” His thumbs rub circles into the flesh above her hip bones. “I like kissing you.”

A laugh bursts out of her lips, before a quick peck catches her breath. Pulling away, Genji trails his hands down her arms before tugging her forward.

“Come on,” he urges. “There’s a seashell I saw on my way over here. You’ll love—”

“Wait, Genji,” she pulls back, keeping herself afloat in water. Carefully kicking and working her arms, she keeps her head above the water at Genji’s confusion. “We need to talk.”

His brow falls before he comes back to her. Jerking her head towards the direction of the rocks, Genji swims with her. A few times, his fin brushes against her feet. The salt laps up onto her lips but it’s never the same as Genji’s kiss.

Once at a large enough boulder, Angela lifts herself out of the water. She faces back to the ocean as to dip her feet into the tide but stay dry upon the rock. Her still wet hand beckons Genji to her. He isn’t slow to cross his arms over her thighs and rest upon her. Eyes shimmer at her somber expression, but he doesn’t fear.

Quietly, Angela breathes out as she brushes through the wet mop of hair upon his head. His tail flips up water in reaction to the sensation. Her thoughts gather together. Not wanting to ruin this warm day, but needing to speak plainly, Angela bites her tongue for a moment.

“Angelfish?” he prompts. 

“Genji,” her brow knits in worry, but she doesn’t stop trailing her fingertips through his hair. “This will be difficult to work out. This.”

She stops to cup his face in her hands. Genji blinks slowly in her touch, before turning to press a kiss into her palm.

“We are two very different creatures,” she speaks with a level voice. It takes all of her control to keep it steady. “We can’t always be together, and a future would mean not having children, or—”

“Angela,” he says firmly, but breaths out with a tremble himself. “Angela, I know. I’ve thought this out again and again. You and me.”

His fingertips move over her thighs like a feather. The warmth of his person keeps her steady as he still leans upon her. For a heartbeat, his gaze drops.

“This will take much from both of us, but, the loss is less then the joy of having you.” His tail lifts for a moment behind him. The finer members of his fins fall forward as he lifts his eyes. “If you can give up a normal, human life, for me, I can give up just the same for you.”

She would never have him in her bed. A morning routine would always be conducted alone. Their embraces could only happen within this water, or upon the sand of the beach. Only together, far away from prying eyes of the other’s world.

The touch of his hands against her skin is warm. The soft texture of his wet hair still brings her life. Salty kisses are all she desires.

If she can swim with only him, then she will have it.

“I can, Genji,” she declares, leaning down. “I will.”

He meets her with a few flips of his tail. Placing his hands on either side of her legs upon the rock, he lifts himself to her mouth. Another salty wave. Another hum of content from both of their throats. Angela lingers, never wanting to part from the taste, earning Genji’s smile.

Her eyes open to a glimmer of deep thought upon his expression. For a moment, he seems far away, before he comes back.

“Are you sure about this, Genji?” she asks carefully as the water and his scales touch against her lower legs. “Can you love a human?”

He comes back all together. Entirely confident.

“I already do.” His lips speak the truth before they crash together again.

*

Genji has always found his personal desires far from the clan. As a group of strong, royal mers, they have ruled this ocean for centuries, but never has he been treated more than just a prince. Hanzo will become the next leader. A second son is worth less.

It was never what he would have chose, but his birth dictated otherwise. There is a new calling coming to him. A life away from what mermaids have always known. He’s found his purpose and it is set in white gold hair and eyes that hold him much more dear than any water.

He is a Shimada. A merman of magic and great gifts. Within his clan, they can perform feats of strength to frighten any creature. Powerful spirits live within them, but only the royal bloodline can conjure them to their bidding.

His tail shimmers with strength and agility only the ocean can know. His purpose lies above the water, but his magic is weak alone.

Angela has already declared her love. There is no doubt within his chest that she would give up a normal, human future for him.

He will do the same for her now.

Where he swims is far too deep for Angela to ever go, even with her oxygen tank and mask. The mermaids still use the light here, and he brushes past others to find his brother. They linger beside a reef, bright and colorful. He finds Hanzo close to the ocean floor. It slowly slopes down with patches of bright coral. The green and brown sharply contrasts with Hanzo’s rich blue tail.

“Hanzo,” Genji calls. He immediately rears his head in anger, a shark bent upon an injured seal.

“Where have you been?” he snarls, flipping his tail in agitation. Genji has to swim backwards for a moment to avoid a head on collision with him. “Father has been asking for you since morning.”

Genji waves his hand through the water, brushing it aside. “I will speak with him, but I must speak with you first.”

Hanzo finally leans back. Crossing his arms over his bare chest, his fins flicker in subdued annoyance.

His gills flare out slowly. No, Genji’s magic alone isn’t enough to allow him to join Angela on land, but with his brother’s, Genji could.

He will. Just as Angela swore to him.

“I need your help.”

A suspicious glare falls over Hanzo’s already heated gaze.

“What trouble did you get yourself into?” he demands.

“There isn’t any trouble.” Genji braces himself as he moves his fins slowly. His hands almost clasp together in a pleading motion. “I need to become human, and you must help me do that.”

What was once suspicion falls to blatantly shock. The smallest edge of fear tugs at the corner of his eyes before Hanzo curses.

“Have you lost your senses, Genji? You want to become human?!” He nearly screeches it all into bubbles. Swiveling his head to check for nearby mers, Genji holds a hand out to shush his brother.

“Keep quiet,” he flips his tail to come closer through the blue liquid. “I wouldn’t ask this of you if I wasn’t absolutely certain. Hanzo, please. You know I have no place here.”

The anger keeps within his sharp features, but for one heartbeat, Hanzo’s fury lessens.

“No, Genji,” he straightens, causing his blue tail to become rigid. “That human you refuse to stop seeing is bewitching you. You will have no place among those land creatures. You must stay here, with your own clan and family.”

His teeth clank together, nearly bared in a snarl.

“And do what? Work in your shadow? Always disappoint Father?” he snaps. His fins swish in quiet fury. “I don’t want this.”

“We don’t always get to have what we want,” Hanzo lifts above him in the blue, looming in his strict order. “That human will leave you broken and bruised. This is where you belong. You are a Shimada, Genji. Begin behaving like one.”

Clenched fists firmly appear at his side. This was doomed from the start. Hanzo only has Father’s vision of the humans. Genji snaps his tail, turning away. He jets off through the water. For a few seconds, his brother gives chase.

But Genji is much faster than him. The reef leaves his backside long after he losses Hanzo’s short pursuit. A few more faint calls fall to his backside, but remain unanswered. Out in the open ocean, Genji finds solitude in his strife and love. The sharp loneliness only reinforces his lack of belonging within its blue. 

He will find another way to stay forever at Angela’s side. His brother will only hinder him. His family… they are dear but they are not the key to his happiness. She is.

And he will do what he musts to keep them together.  

*

There is a cold current on the far end of the reef. Hanzo hardly has reason to leave his clan and duties behind, but a concern propels him into darker waters.

He smells the blood behind finding her. A shark carcass rests on the bottom of the ocean. No other, smaller fish linger over the fresh flesh and blood as they usually would. He stays on the outskirts of the blood infected water. The scent of it infects his gills with a sense of dirtiness.

“You’ve come a long way, Shimada.” The mermaid speaks for the first. Raising her gaze over her shoulder, blood clouds the water around her mouth. He doesn’t need to see the pieces of silver flesh in between her teeth.

“Amélie.” Hanzo speaks, throwing his voice through the water. “Your service is needed, and will be paid for in full.”

A deep hum leaves her before she flips her tail away from the shark carcass. Wiping her lips, blood and pieces of rough scales leave her mouth. The yellow of her irises are of predators. Her long, tail of dark purple scales hold black edge fins. Her strength and speed through the ocean is only matched by her beauty. A deadly sea anemone.

“I hope you have my payment ready, Hanzo,” she drags his name through her teeth. Flipping her tail, she comes close. Hanzo’s glare holds against her approach.

He holds up a clam. Parting the shells, a black pearl nestles carefully within it. It nearly shines with a negative light, earning the mermaid’s intrigued brow.

A treasure with enough worth to sway even a sea witch.

“What would you have me do, that you can’t do yourself?” she asks, alluring.

Hanzo sharpens his gaze. This is what must be done, least he lose Genji to some fantasy with that wretched human. His delusions will only end with him being ruined. Hanzo has protected him for as long as he can, especially from Father’s wrath. The pure insanity of even asking Hanzo to assistant in making him human has forced his hand.

“A human has lead my brother astray for far too long. You will get rid of this human, but no harm can fall to Genji.”

Her sharp teeth appear visible in a small, interested smile.

“And if Genji gets in my way?”

Hanzo snarls, snapping the clam. “No harm will come upon him, or you will not receive your reward.”

Her long, tail swishes in peaked interest. Flipping it, she circles him. Hanzo refuses to give in to meekness. His tail stays firm against her looming threat, and doesn’t flinch when she passes close to his face. The long strands of her ponytail follow her slow turn. 

“It will be done shortly,” she speaks, as if still hungry for more blood. “Then I will come to collect my reward.”


	3. Chapter 3

Nothing and everything changes.

Angela can only find time after work to slip away, as she’s taken to the midnight to morning shift. It’s worth it to swim in the sun alongside him. Her arrival is always a few seconds before Genji’s. He still holds onto her wrist to swim her to the sandy bottom. Once he notes her pruny skin, and quick breaths, they retire to the beach. Sometimes she’ll sleep, or he will.

But now there are different touches. His hands lingers over her thighs and hips with gentle motions. Bolder kisses are exchanged, a few even under water before Angela loses her oxygen to bubbles. She finds the line between his skin and scales to be sensitive, and will trace her fingers along the distinction.

They lay on the beach now. Her towel holds her dripping wet body as Genji sprawls out beside her. The sand sticks to his scales but he still reaches over to brush his fingers through her drenched hair.

“You’re going to make me fall asleep,” she murmurs, even as her eyes are closed against the red of the sun. His soft touch moves along her hairline. His person is pressed alongside her, cool and comforting.

“Is that such a bad thing?” he questions. Slowly, his fingers fall from her hair and down the line of her cheeks. One fingertip outlines what must be dark flesh underneath her closed eyelids.

“It is when your scales dry out and you refuse to wake me.” She pries one eye open to give the merman a sharp look. “You are far too unconcerned about yourself.”

“Hmm,” he hums, edging on the tone of a siren song. The magic in his voice is almost tempting, were it not contained within his throat. “I know you’ll take care of me.”

Both her eyes slip open at this. In the sun, he leans over her. One arm props up his head as he gives a melting grin. A few drops of water fall free from his black hair. There is only confidence within him. A certainty that mimics the soft embers in her heart. The trust of his person rests comfortingly within her.

She leans up, pecking at his lips before falling back against her towel and the sand they both lie upon.

“Of course, Genji,” she whispers.

He hums again, pleased at her sudden impulse. Quietly, he leans down to her fluttering eyelashes. His lips touch gently along the corner of one eye.

“I’ll wake you up when I need to get back into the water,” he promises softly. His fingertips return to touching soothingly through her hair.

It’s comical how quickly she takes to napping. His hum almost turns into laughter as she breathes softly, stretched out in the warmth of the sun. The opportunity to simply touch her hair and outline her facial features is not wasted by Genji.

She sleeps softly knowing he wants to be as close to her as she does with him.

Gently, a hand shakes her shoulder.

“Come on, Angelfish, I’m dying here.”

Angela blinks at the new position of the sun before sitting upright.

“How long..?” she trails off as she rubs the heel of her hand into her eyes.

“An hour.” He shifts uncomfortably in the sand. No doubt hiding how much his dull scales are affecting him. “Not really enough time, but I didn’t want you working yourself over my dry scales.”

“Genji,” she huffs, getting to her feet.

“I know, I know, but I woke you up before I became too dry.” He puts one hand up in defense. The other is still being used to prompt himself. The end of his fins flips at the edge of the water. Quickly, Angela takes his arms, and carefully drags him back into the ocean. Goosebumps startle her skin with the rush of the tide. The gills alongside Genji’s ribcage flare out as he sinks for a moment.

She doesn’t fall under with him, but kicks out to the rocks. A few times, the brush of his scales touch against her feet as she swims. He keeps with her as he resoaks his green tail. It must be refreshing for him, like taking a deep breath of air.

A gasp leaves her when the end of his tail suddenly slaps against her calf. The motion is rough enough to cause her to slip under a little, but she keeps her mouth in the air. Regaining her position, an annoyed glare falls into the water.

He’s accidentally slapped her legs with his tail a few times before. Only when he was turning to quickly or forgetting her slower pace in the water. It was never as harsh as that.

It was almost as if he reacted sharply to something.

“Genji,” she asks, skimming the blue water. It’s blue color keeps from seeing too deep. The shimmer of his scales don’t shine in her immediate area. She twists in the water, kicking her legs as to turn in a slow circle.

A knot settles into her stomach. The boulders are close, but she swims past them out deeper. Her breaths stay in a calm rhythm as she goes out into the open waters. Genji probably saw a pretty seashell or a piece of shiny trash that he thinks she’ll like.

“Genji?” she tries again.

From the blue horizon, her lungs freeze as a dark torpedo shape suddenly jets through the water to her. Kicking back, Angela only has time to gasp inwards before a force akin to a bull hitting her chest drags her under.

Her hair falls around her head as she’s pushed deeper. Blinking in the rush of bubbles and adrenaline, a cold face looks down at her. A woman, holding no emotions asides from intensity, pushes her to the ocean floor. Sharp nails dig into her upper arms as her tail flips furiously. Her scales are a purple so dark it’s almost black.

A mermaid.

Angela snaps her jaw together, physically containing what little oxygen she gathered. Pushing against her shoulders, she struggles to break free. The mermaid bears her sharp teeth. A long ponytail falls from her head, waving in the darker waters as they still descend deeper.

Her lungs already burn. Desperately, Angela lifts her knees to her chest before striking into the mermaid’s stomach. The purple tail thrashes harshly for a moment, allowing Angela to kick free from her grasp.

The salt burns her lips and eyes as she darts towards the surface. The sunlight makes it appear so far away. Her chest screams for oxygen, but Angela refuses to let bubbles fall out of her mouth.

Cold fingers wrap around her ankle, dragging her back. The sharp pull breaks her will. Bubbles fall helplessly from her mouth as her throat constricts. The need to inhale versus the need to keep water out of her lungs battle violently.

Her gaze falls down to the cold mermaid with yellow eyes. Her other hand reaches for Angela when green scales flicker into her vision. Only a moment is allowed to take in his quick punch to the mermaid’s cheek. Causing her grip to slip, Angela begins fighting upwards through the water.

Hands wrap around her waist, riling up her fight or flight response but she’s only lift higher. The touch settles her as her body begins trembling and her vision blakens. Against her control, she inhales for a heartbeat before they break through the surface.

She chokes and sputters the water back out, breathing in like a dead man finding life again. Her arms flair and legs kick as his steady hold disappears from her waist. The edge of black around her vision quickly recedes. A wild drumming in her heart pushes her to begin swimming to the rocks. A few thoughts of Genji going back to face that mermaid stun her, but he can’t drown like she.

Halfway to the rocks, her terrified chest is pulled under once more by a cold grip. She’s released in seconds. Her head bursts back to the surface, where glimpses of the struggle between green and purple scales occur. There is no logic in her brain to cause her to stop. The fright of the ocean and creature within it propel her forward.

She grips the rock, all but ready to throw herself upon it when splashing erupts along her back. A swivel look backwards reveals the purple mermaid. A long, jagged dagger resides in her hand. Along the horizon of the orange, setting sun, it shines red.

She inhales once as the mermaid’s unfeeling gaze sharpens upon her.

The mermaid swipes at her spine when Genji cuts between her and the murderous creature. A growl of pain falls from his lips at the red line slashed across his chest, but it doesn’t slow him. He shoves the cold creature away.

“The shore, Angela,” he shouts. “Get to the shore.”

“Genji!” Panic nearly takes her at the fresh blood dripping down his front, but he pushes her off the rock. Falling back into the water, she sputters before kicking once more. Angela swims into the shallows.

She can escape the ocean, but Genji can’t. He’ll be trapped with the mermaid bent on harming them. Salt threatens to choke her lips, but she slows once her feet touch upon sand.

“Genji,” she shouts, facing the ocean, “Come to me.”

His black hair pokes out of the churning waves for a moment.

“Get out of—” he suddenly dives, grabbing the fin of the mermaid and ripping her back. In the shallows, the tails flipping through the water are clear as day. A screech fills the air as the mermaid turns on Genji. Ripping free, she bashes him back once before diving for Angela.

“Trust me,” she nearly screams. Her legs fight against the weight of the water to move backwards. Her breaths are still quick. Two mers are diving for her.

Genji elbows the purple tailed woman once, before nearly toppling her over in the thigh deep water. His powerful tail kicks up sand as he tries to move in the lack of depth. Red stains the liquid around his torso. Placing his body between hers and the mermaid, he attempts to push her back with one hand on her leg.

“Get out of here,” he yells. His raised voice chills her bones.

“No,” she shouts back. Bending down, she grabs Genji’s upper arms and pulls him back. In the water, his weight is lighter. The look he gives her is bewildered, but he doesn’t fight back. He only focuses on flickering his tail once to slam the oncoming mermaid away. Her dagger misses its strike, and she falls against the shallow bottom. Picking herself up, the mermaid snarls. The dark hair upon her head drops down her back like dead seaweed.

Angela fights the sand as she drags Genji out of the water. Her eyes meet the mermaid’s, which are only set upon her. The cold face of the mermaid doesn’t waver. Slowly, she lowers her blade into the tide. The end of her purple tail flickers slowly.  

“You can’t keep him out of the ocean forever.” Her voice carries like frozen silk. “Human, bring him back, and I’ll make your death quick.”

His hands suddenly grip her wrists. Genji only bares his teeth to the mermaid. Upon the hot sand of the beach, Angela still holds him in a tight vice. Green fins lie against the beach, out of place.

She’s right… Genji needs water, but if she brings Genji back to the ocean, she could hurt him. Angela doesn’t trust the sharp teeth of the mermaid.

Shifting to grab his arms better, Angela takes him farther from the water. Genji’s tail leaves a deep impression in the sand. Startled, both mermaids stare at Angela.

“What are you doing?” he asks, unsure, lingering with fury.

“I’m—I’m taking you to my house. I have a large bathtub. You’ll be safe there.” There’s no solid conviction in her voice. The lack of logical or thought put into this is pathetically apparent, but she refuses to go back. She won’t hand Genji over to that mermaid.

“Angela,” he tenses. His hold upon her suddenly tightens as her efforts take them to the edge of the trees. Her jeep is only inches away. She’ll just have to get him into the passenger seat somehow.

“You’re going to kill him, human,” the mermaid calls, her voice farther away now. “Come back here.”

Angela refuses to look back to the beach, but kneels down. Noting the bright scarlet on his chest, her decision solidifies.

“I know this is scary, but I’ll take care of you.” She keeps her voice level. The light-hearted gaze she’s always know is narrowed with protection and uncertainty. “There’s nothing else we can do now. You’re bleeding, and she will hurt you again. We’ll figure something out later.”

The sand speckles the shine of his tail as he shifts. In a heartbeat, he nods.

Angela breathes out, before grabbing onto him once more. A few more calls come from the deadly mermaid in the swallows, but her voice fades as Angela drags Genji away. The grass and his wet scales help her in her endeavor. Coming along the passenger side of her jeep, Angela opens the door. Ungracefully, she manages to climb inside and lift him from the ground, before going out the other door to shove the rest of his tail inside. He’s forced to fold his tail in half, but he manages to fit.

A grimace is hidden along the wide eyed stare of Genji. This is entirely new, far from anything he’s ever known. His blood is beginning to stain the floor of the jeep.

One glance back to the beach reveals the mermaid still lying in the tide. Her gaze is frozen with anger. Both her fists are curled tightly, one around the knife.

Angela jumps into the jeep, before driving away.


	4. Chapter 4

The slash isn’t deep, but it cuts lengthwise along his pectorals. Dripping blood falls down his chest as Angela finally eases him into the oversize bathtub. Red smears across the white sides. A groan falls from his lips. Straining, Angela breathes harshly.

“This is what humans swim in for fun?” he asks between his clenched teeth.

“That’s a swimming pool.” She props his head as she leans him back. Reflectively, he stretches out his tail, pushing the end over the rim of the white tub. Sand falls upon the floor, still sticking to his damp scales. “This is a bathtub, where we clean ourselves.”

“That’s still ridiculous,” he manages to say, before shifting his long tail in the too small tub. The tight space is obviously strange to him. The bottom of his fins hang over the bathroom floor.

“Stop moving, Genji” Angela presses his shoulder back gently. “You’re bleeding too much. I’ll get the water going then grab my medical kit.”

Lingering, her hand lifts to his cheek. For a moment, she holds his gaze. The narrowed brow and heavy eyes must be mirrors of her own, she guesses. Angela stands. Twisting the faucet, the water runs cool, but not frozen.

“I’ll be right back.”

He hums once, before it trails off into a flinch. Slowly, the rushing of the water touches his person.

Through the hallway, the evidence of the salt water and beach debris spread across the hardwood floor. The struggle of simply getting Genji inside her house almost made tears of frustration spring free, but she managed. They both did.

But this is only a plan of immediate effect. Her bathtub isn’t a substitute for the ocean. On her arms, smears of Genji’s bloods decorate her skin. Rushing into the kitchen, she pulls free the medical kit from the bottom drawer.

The purple mermaid almost killed her, and already harmed Genji. She couldn’t trust the creature, must less leave Genji in the water with her. The adrenaline and fear pushed her to take Genji to her house, but what now?

Now, she cleans and bandages his wound… but after?

She steps back into the bathroom, lifting her chin. Genji is all but sprawled out across the whole tub, with his arms resting on the sides and his tail spilling over. His gaze turns to her. Suddenly, her legs are stalled in the doorway.

“I have no idea how to treat a mermaid,” she breathes out.

“Merman,” he corrects, before grimacing. “Anyways, you’re not working on my tail. You’re working on this.”

He gestures to his chest. The human part of him. That should be familiar, but even then gills trail down the length of his ribs. Medicine wise, Angela isn’t sure of what sort of dosage to give. He may even be unable to take certain medicines.

Still, she kneels besides the tub. Her hands work like machines. Smooth and unwavering, doing the job as if the creature in the bath isn’t her love. The stress of the future is silently slipped aside.

Genji needs her help now.

An unpleasant look passes over his face at the sight of the syringe. Placing that aside, Angela places antiseptic upon cloth. His blood is frightening, but it easily cleans away. He shifts underneath her hands, earning her sharp rebukes before settling. The focused movement of his eyes keep with her steady hands. The water begins trickling over his scales and waist. She turns it off before it can reach his chest.

“Do you usually have big needles lying around your home?” he tenses at the sight of the anesthetic within the syringe.

“Not always,” she says, testing the plunger. A little liquid fills over her hands before she leans over his chest. “I started keeping them around when the neighbors called me for favors.”

“Right… you’re always ready to help with your big needles.” He grimaces as she positions the needle over his. Squirming underneath her hand, she huffs.

“Genji, look up. You’re being a guppy.”

Twisting his mouth, he tilts his head back to rest on the edge of the tub. Angela positions the needle once more. His tail tenses.

“I’ve never been poked with a needle in my life,” he grumbles. “Since you’ve told me about all the shots you’ve given, I’ve become a little wary of them.”

A smile almost lifts her lips, “It’s done.”

He looks down sharply, before finding her already placing the syringe aside. The red slash has slowed it’s bleeding. The shape of his mouth resembles a small ‘O’.

“That feels… better.”

“You’ll be numb for about two hours.” She says, not letting relief touch her chest quite yet. “Now…”

The wound should be bandaged, but it will only get soaking wet once she finishes filling up the tub. The water would make it difficult to keep it clean, unless they keep draining and refilling the tub every few hours or so.

“Angela.” A soft brush of his fingers tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. The sudden touch brings her out of her thoughts, “Are you alright?”

“Am I alright? Genji…” She clasps his fingers between her hands. The impression of his knuckles underneath his skin move against her lips. “A mermaid was trying to kill you.”

Her heavy gaze falls back to the somewhat clean, but still red wound. The layout of his tail is awkward and unnatural in the scene of her bathtub. There was nothing she could do in the water. Nothing she could do against such a creature.

“Angelfish,” Genji tenses, “she wasn’t trying to kill me, she was trying to kill you.”

His grip tightens for a moment as the sound of clench teeth echo. Lifting her eyes, Genji grimace lasts only a second.

“Settle down,” she drops her voice into something controlled, softer. “Your wound needs to heal.”

“This little scratch isn’t anything to worry about,” he squeezes her hand. At her unconvinced gaze, he quickly adds, “I am magical after all. I’ll be okay in just a few days.”

“A few days,” she echoes. The water in the bath ripples at his every movement. The green scales sparkle brightly in the clear liquid. Somehow, it feels off without the blue ocean surrounding the distinct texture. “Can you last that long here?”

“Yes,” he pauses, “but I have to go back to the ocean. Soon.”

His hand suddenly moves out of her grasp. He shifts to peer over her hunched person, earning Angela’s immediate hiss to lay back down. Most of her skin is still bared in her bikini, aside from the jacket she recently threw on. Satisfied, he flops back.

“She didn’t cut you, but did Amélie hurt you anywhere else?” Although he visibly relaxes, the tighter tones of his voice ring with a sharp edge of anger. “She had you under for a long time.”

“I’m fine, Genji.” The black brimming around the edges of her vision appears in the back of her mind. Along with the choking sensation of wanting to breathe in but knowing that water will only enter her lungs. “Amélie is the mermaid’s name? How do you know she was trying to kill me, and not you?”

His eyes hold her. The light reflected from the rippling water and the ceiling bulb throws circles around his sepia irises. Anguish burdens him like the red slash across his chest.

“Genji?” she asks.

A deep breath leaves him. Facing her, he inhales.

“I went to my brother, but he turned me away. When I left, he must have paid Amélie to kill you to make me stay with the clan.” The fists alongside his scales tighten. Green fins curl for a moment in flickering anger. “If he killed the human I was seeing, I wouldn’t want to become one anymore.”

The words work slowly into her mind, before settling completely. Like disturbed sand after a bad storm. Angela leans over the tub, and takes his cheek in her hand.

“You’re willing to become human… for me?” she asks slowly, as if questioning a dream.

His lips tug upwards into a small smile. Wet fingertips cover her hand.

“You already chose me over everything, I wanted to do the same.” His smile disappears into a sharp, twisted, snarl. “I thought Hanzo would at least help me. My magic alone isn’t strong enough.”

“To turn you completely human,” Angela says. He has done it before, once. His magic will allow him to walk on land but not for long. If Hanzo would assist him, it could be permanent. They wouldn’t have to part at the beach every day. She could show him her world. The water and land wouldn’t be a barrier, nothing else could stop them.

She could teach him how to swim, like a human.

A storm rumbles in her chest. He’s still a mermaid, and very much stuck in her bathtub.

“Genji,” she murmurs, brushing her thumb across his cheek. “Are you sure about this?”

“I already told you, Angelfish,” Genji squeezes her fingers, losing his terrible rage for a moment. “You and me. I choose this.”

He did. On the beach, in the water, where they were both content to exist as they already are. Clueless about the real future, but hopeful, eager. It didn’t seem so daunting with them both together. They both shake with their wounds tonight, but she hopes that he’ll heal with his magic.

His brother refused him the chance to become human. Somehow, with Genji’s magic, there must be a way. While they are still stuck here, and the mermaid pollutes their little beach, they can figure something out.

But not tonight. Tonight, they both need to rest, and be thankful that this was the only damage done.

Angela leans forward, still cupping his cheek. He breathes out harshly as he shifts, responding to her before her hand gently presses him back down. One raised brow warns him. A sheepish grin finds her.

“Rest, and let your wound heal,” she whispers, inches away. The red slash across his chest could have easily bared his unprotected heart. It could have cut much deeper, and bled much heavier. “I can’t sit here and worry that I lost you again.”

“No, of course not. You can’t lose me again, Angelfish,” he murmurs. The smallest grimace moves through him, but it’s not just at the slash across his chest.

He’s said those words before. When she was scared and waiting on the sands in the dark. The promise still holds within her. Yet, the animosity all around them clouds it. It almost hides away his comfort, but she clings to it.

The water splashes quietly when she kisses him. It’s only a quick, chaste thing, but it tastes like home. When she pulls away, she can still note the salt on her tongue.

*

The human actually pulled him out of the ocean.

Amélie’s fins cut through the water. The touch of the sand still grinds across her scales. The human was within her grasp, terrified, but not just for herself. For Genji, the Shimada Prince.

Of course, she broke a small part of her deal with Hanzo. She could have just plunged her dagger into his chest, but the reward and the threat of the Shimada Clan stalled her swipe.

He was interfering too much. The desperation sprung out of fear for the human. So quick to protect. Both of them were. The human and the merman…

Madly in love.

The human will bring him back. It’s just a matter of time.

*

The tile isn’t the softest bedding, but Angela still sleeps on it. Genji’s attempts to dissuade her only meet a dead end. She couldn’t fall asleep in her own bed anyways, not when Genji’s eyes ease open with painful groans. Through the night, she gives him pain relief. She herself only finds a few hours to actually sleep after dawn touches the earth.

It would be hard to speak so out loud, but she does love waking up to him. He already squirms and wiggles in the small space of the bathtub, but his scales stay wet. The wound across his chest is already healing at a pleasant pace, but the threat of it reopening and bleeding again still lingers. As he boasts of his magic, Angela gives him another shot of the numbing agent.

His curiosity is entertaining in the least. When he figures out the function of her brush, he insists on running it through her hair, least he die of boredom. When she leaves for only a moment to thaw out the cod stashed in her freezer, a shout from the bathroom causes her to jump out of her skin.

Rushing inside with her heart in her throat, she only finds the shower head dosing Genji in water, much to his surprise. The function of the faucet is entirely known to him now.

After a meal of cod, although with her fish thoroughly cooked, she falls asleep again. She didn’t think she could, but once Genji started brushing her hair again, it was over. It carries her into the evening. The golden glow of the setting sun fills the bathroom with light. The small window only allows a peek of it.

She wakes to his touch. His fingers trace back and forth along her jaw and down her neck. He shifts as she sits up. Catching his fingers, she kisses his knuckles once.

“Are you doing alright, Angelfish?” he asks quietly. The end of his fins flip slowly over the edge of the tub. Water drips from the green appendages. He must have just dipped them in.

“I’m alright. Are you? How’s the water? Is your wound hurting again?”

“Angelfish, I’m okay,” he nearly exasperates. “I don’t know how you don’t get a headache from that constant crease in your brow.”

He lifts his thumb to touch it to her forehead. Rubbing between her eyebrows, the tense muscles loosen at the motion. She wants to twist her mouth, but a smile forbiddingly touches her lips. His smirk only causes it to grow.

“I only get headaches when I’m around you, fish boy,” Angela retorts.

He laughs before letting his hand fall away. The sound echoes off the confined, bathroom walls before dying. A weight suddenly crashes upon both their shoulders, nearly dragging Angeal back to the floor.

They haven’t spoken of their next plan yet, mostly out of sheer exhaustion and taking in the new circumstances. Perhaps, a little out of reluctance, due to simply enjoying being so close to each other.  

Turning Genji human would take too much magic by himself. His brother, Hanzo, could help him, but he’s already refused. Either way, she has to get him back to the ocean soon. The mermaid is still waiting to drown her, no doubt.

Hanzo is still the only one who can help them.

“Genji,” she says, lifting her head. He seems to lighten at her focused expression. “What if we both spoke with Hanzo? We could explain—”

“No,” Genji interjects. The length of his tail tenses with the word. “Absolutely not. I don’t want him anywhere near you.”

“Genji, if we could convince him to combine his magic with yours—”

“Angela,” his fins slap against the wall as he leans up to grasp her hand. “I know he sent Amélie to kill you. I don’t trust him right now. If anything happened to you—I can’t lose you either.”

She clasps his tight grip. Shifting to her knees, Angela pushes him back down. The slash across his chest still needs time to heal. He’s going to rip it open if he refuses to be still.

If the mermaid was truly sent by Hanzo to get rid of her, then they are simply stuck. Angela shakes her head slowly. There must be a way. If she could only persuade Hanzo, speak to him for only a moment. He could surely understand.

The fierce anger burning Genji’s bones are all for her. Protective. Caring. Afraid.

If he can give up the sea to walk with her on land, she can risk just as much.

“He’s the only one who can help make you human, Genji,” she breathes out slowly. “I want to—”  
  
“He’s not the only one.”

When she lifts her gaze, Genji’s eyes are lowered. In the water he’s submerged, and his green scales glimmer. His bare chest holds his wound. Sharp focus overtakes his brow.

“A sea witch could help,” he says.

A cold sensation fills Angela’s gut.

“You told me sea witches are the most evil creatures in the ocean.”

“They also have magic powerful enough to turn me human,” he tenses. His jaw shifts unhappily even at the thought. He still says, “If I can make a deal with one.”

“No,” she leans back. “No, Genji.”

“Angela,” he squeezes her fingers. He finally lifts his gaze, finding her uncertainty shrouded in fear. “I can make it work. I can become human, and everything will be alright.”

There are too many tales Genji has told her. A suspicion had arose that not all of the stories were true, but simply meant to scare her. Even if half of the tales weren’t true, a sea witch is still evil. They only want evil things.

Their backs are against the wall, but it won’t be just her risking everything for this. Genji will have to make a deal that doesn’t harm him, or cause him to lose his magic entirely. Slowly, she shakes her head. The ice in her veins expand.

“Angelfish,” Genji murmurs, holding her gaze.

“A sea witch is our best chance.”


	5. Chapter 5

3 AM is known as the witching hour. The worst of things are suppose to occur, but she’s finding that it’s not always true. It simply could be something no one could understand.

Then again, If Angela saw a woman dragging a merman back into the ocean, she’d think herself insane.

But the darkness hides them, even her struggled breathing. Already her arms are hurting from moving him. The carefulness she also holds is to keep his scales from getting rubbed off by the ground. At the end of the large, open beach, where most tourists come, Angela stops for a moment.

“Take a break,” he says.

She shakes her head. Even as her heart pounds heavily, trying to work her oxygen filled blood through her limbs, she doesn’t let go of his arms.

“We’re almost there.”

It’s dangerous being here. Any eyes could catch them, or rather, Genji’s tail. Everything is a risk, but at least there’s no mermaid here waiting to drown Angela. Genji refused to let her take him back to their little beach. Here, a tourist could stumble upon them. She drags him back onto the sand, working down the small decline towards the ocean.

“Augh—you are so heavy, Genji,” she speaks between gritted teeth. The water laps over her bare toes.

“Hey!”

He tugs her hands off of him, flopping onto the water. Quietly, as the tide rushes over both of them, Genji’s gills flare out. Then, he works his arms, pulling himself into the swallows. The use of all of her strength causes her to kneel in the gentle tide. Angela breathes in and out. The ocean is taking care of him. Relief melts his features slowly into the tide, like the foamy crescents of a wave. The bathtub he was confined in was only liquid, nothing else of the salt and vastness this body of water is.

He takes to the water. Underneath, he must feel the lift of the restraint that kept him from breathing improperly. This is his home. The merman has to come back to it to live properly.

Not for long, if they can manage a deal with the sea witch.

Settling her lungs, Angela leaves him to recuperate. Her jeep rests in the empty parking lot. The isolation of just the stars and the night air comforts her skin. She’s never taken a sick day or vacation since spring. The hospital will have to manage without her.

Slowly, Angela tugs off her cover up. The simple black bikini she wears is all she has. No shoes. No bag. No armor or noble steed. It will be just her and Genji swimming the ocean.

The day after Genji proposed going to a sea witch, Angela finally agreed. It took a whole night for their arguing to die down about how to go about. The thought of Angela going with him made him curse and slap his fin, but they both are already risking so much. She will do the same if he is willing to do it.

Her stubbornness beat him out. Angela will help Genji make a deal with the sea witch.

She enters back into the ocean. The water rushes against her hips when Genji raises his head from the ocean. Lowering herself into the tide, he takes her hands as his tail wavers slowly.

“You can let me do this alone, you know,” he tries once more.

“We’re done discussing this,” she speaks firmly, but squeezes his hands gently in the water. “You and me. Nothing less.”

He nods once, before smirking at the water. “I can’t convince you, huh?”

“Not at all.”

He laughs quietly, before ducking underneath the surface. His grip disappears. The smallest glimmer of his scales shine underneath the dark waters. Kicking out, Angela begins to swim. The trail of his fins touch against her skin as she fights through the ocean. Calming pacing her lungs and strokes, Genji resurfaces when they leave the sand bar.

“It should take us some time to get to this sea witch, but we’ll make it before dawn.” He circles her, before coming to hold her waist. A moment to let her rest.

“Are you ready?”

Across the horizon, the stars bleed into the small, cresting waves. They already crossed so much land and sea. Years have stretched between them, from the children they were to the fight they battle against now. It seems they were always meant to find each other.

After this, they won’t have to keep finding the other’s soul. The lost that Angela once fear won’t remain. They simply will be.  

“I’ve been swimming for a long time. I’m not as fast as you, but I can keep pace.” She pulls out of his hold, only glancing back at his somber face once. “Let’s go.”

He swims alongside her, just underneath the surface. The touch of his fins will startle her feet. Sometimes, the slippery sensation of his scales will brush against her skin. When she’s going off course, he’ll touch her shoulder, pushing her slightly into the direction she needs to go. The water holds her just as much as she cuts through it. Her body burns with the effort, but its slow and building. Endurance is her companion. When she begins to feel weary, and like the ocean is going to rush into her mouth, hours of operations spring to mind. An 18 hour surgery isn’t much more difficult than this.

Genji has shown her enough of the currents and tide. She is almost of the sea’s kind.

*

Something’s wrong.

Amélie lingers by the rocks. Her hand rests against one boulder barely peeking out of the darkness. Impatiently, her tail swishes back and forth. The dark purple fin wavers slowly, like a shark just above the surface.

Too many days have passed. Either the human wants him dead, or they’re not returning here. If the latter is the case, it seems secrecy isn’t so important to the human.

She’ll have to tell Hanzo before he accuse her of killing his brother. In any case, it was the human’s doing, not hers. The last thing she wants is the Shimada Clan bent after her for that stupid human’s actions.

Scared creatures will act desperately…

Genji wouldn’t.

The foolish thought of becoming human is already in Genji’s head, but he’s not strong enough to make that happen himself. Not with just that human helping him. Hanzo already refused him. There are few others who would dare help.

Genji wouldn’t…

He’s in love. He’s desperate enough to go to a sea witch if it meant staying with that human.

Hanzo will need to know, least her tail be cut off for this.

Pushing off of the rock, Amélie flicks her fins and returns to the deep.

*

Long past the view of the mainland, an island suddenly rises from the water. Small, and really unnoticeable with mostly black jagged rocks, Genji points her there. As the details arise in the near darkness, a cave opening reveals itself. Before Angela can swim to the entrance, Genji surfaces. His arms wrap around her waist, letting her heavy breaths take rest.

“This is where the sea witch dwells.” Genji holds her expression in the night. There is grimness weighing down his gaze, but a blazing determination keeps it from crushing him. “I don’t know what form she’ll take, but stay close to me. Don’t speak to her directly, let me do the talking.”

“I know,” she says. Her pruney fingers curl against his chest, and the scar across it. The wound healed quickly, just as he said it would. It has held through their journey. Now, a weariness threatens her limbs. Quietly, she controls her harsh breathing. “But we have to both agree on the deal. This affects both of us.”

“I know.” His flicking tail touches her legs. The grip of his hands shift to hold tighter. “By morning, I’ll be walking on the sand with you.”

A breathless huff leaves her while water laps against both of them. He’s so sure of an uncertain future. Lifting her hand, she brushes it through his wet hair, trailing down his skull before cupping the back of his neck.

“Be careful, Genji,” she doesn’t let her voice waver, “don’t let her trick you.”

“Of course, Angelfish.” He touches his forehead to hers. Quietly, they simply create ripples in the water together. A cold blood still flows through her veins, but Angela braces herself.

They can make this work. They can go home together.

Slowly lifting his hands from her waist, Genji turns away. They both look over the cave. The sea witch awaits. Staying with her slow strokes, he leads her into the dark mouth. Half of it fills with water. The black rock expands into a cavern with a curling roof. A shelf of rock holds dry land while the cave formation continues downwards into a black abyss.

Genji sharply surveys the walls, like an animal sensing a trap. An unpleasant twist of his mouth appears at the dark opening underneath them, like a beast ready to swallow them whole. He studies it as he slows to let Angela reach out and hold onto his right shoulder. Quickly, his fin tugs them along. He doesn’t stop until she can pull herself out of the water to sit on the dry rock.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of having a Shimada in my presence?”

The ice in Angela’s veins floods her heart. Freezing over her rib cage, she touches Genji’s shoulder as she twists to find the voice. The source of the eerie, sophisticated tone falls from a woman’s mouth. She stands further in on the rock shelf, by a few platforms carved out of stone. Trinkets and items are scattered across the stone slabs, a few resembling bones and priceless ship artifacts, while the others are entirely unknown to Angela.

Genji pulls himself up and rest his folded arms upon the rock shelf. Right beside Angela, he gives her a nod before looking to the woman. The woman stands on two feet, entirely human. A gut wrenching feeling invades Angela’s center, telling her otherwise. The tall, slender frame of the sea witch turns with sharp eyes. A simple dark shirt and pants dress her. Red hair is cut short, outlining her cutting features. When she turns completely towards them, almost out of mild interest, Angela finds her two irises share different colors.

“Moira,” Genji greets curtly. His tail flickers slowly underneath the water as he straightens over the rock. The looming sensation of dread must be infecting him too. Angela curls her fingers into fists, resisting the urge to tug Genji back into the water and swim away.

“And a human.” The sea witch’s brow raises sharply upon her. Angela has to keep her gaze over her shoulder, but she doesn’t blink. Under her scrutiny, Angela feels like a liquid in a glass vial.  

“I want to make a deal,” he says. His gaze remains narrowed upon the sea witch, the caution ever present. His arm almost touches against her thigh.

“No doubt it involves this human,” her cool voice muses. She finally steps from the far wall of the cavern. Facing them, a sharp intent fills the sea witch’s face. “Is she your form of payment?”

“No.” Genji doesn’t look to Angela, but for a brief moment, his scales brush against her leg. “I want to become human.”

A smile touches the edges of her thin lips. The tension within Angela’s shoulder blades must be evident to her.

“The Shimada Clan hasn’t dealt with me in ages.” Moira steps closer to their position. As each steps echoes off the watery walls, Genji moves closer to Angela. “I assume Sojiro knows nothing of your wishes?”

“My father has nothing to do with this. I am the one wanting your magic,” his voice remains firm, but a sharp edge rises as she gets closer. “If you aren’t willing to make a deal, don’t waste my time. I will look elsewhere.”

Amusement almost tugs at the corner of her different colored eyes. Moira stops a few paces from the edge of the water. Her eyes study them mercilessly. The water laps against her knees as Angela refuses the urge to dive into the sea. She keeps a hard expression, unwilling to let the sea witch pry into her emotions. Not while Genji is facing her for both their sakes.

“Don’t be hasty. We will work something out.”

His arms tense as Moira overlooks Angela’s backside. She becomes rigid, like plates of ice are frozen within her muscles. Slowly, Moira’s gaze returns to him.

“Such powerful magic has a great price, Shimada.”

He nearly bares his teeth, “I know. I have my own magic as well. I don’t need all of yours, just half. That will make the price half.”

A bothered brow raises as she says, “You think I will allow that?”

“You have searched for answers on how the Shimada Clan carries spirit dragons within their magic for ages.” He flips his tail at this, but remains steady. “You would take a scrap of my magic, if not half, for that reason alone.”

The spirit dragon. She remembers how he spoke about them, almost reserved. His group of mers are unlike any others as they contain it within their magic. The power he holds with it is what has made his family bloodline as old and power as it is.

He never went into detail about his spirit dragon. She never asked beyond what he already told her.

If Genji and Moira make this deal… will he lose his spirit dragon? Will Moira have a powerful, ancient magic at her disposal?

All so he can become human with her?

Her insides twist at Genji losing such a heavy part of him. It would be akin to giving up half of his tail, or heart. The fists she holds slowly loosen. Yet, she doesn’t reach for him.

“I will only have all of it, Shimada. Nothing less,” Moira says, leveled.

Genji’s brow furrows. The green membranes of his fin still as he looks to her. A question waits in his eyes. A soft desperation leaks from both of their souls, but it is too weak, and frightening. He’s willing, either way.

He can’t give that all up. Not for this. Not for her. Moira shouldn’t have that kind of power.

There has to be another way.

Angela shakes her head, causing water to fall from the wet locks of her ponytail. Holding her gaze, Genji inhales softly. His eyes close for a moment as disappointment and grief fills their lungs.

“Then we don’t have a deal.”

He pushes away from the rock. Holding out his hand, Angela takes it as she scoots to the edge.

An unintelligible word falls from the sea witch’s mouth. It stalls Angela’s movement as the water lapping against the rock suddenly begins shifting. In the abyss deep in the water, a booming, earth shaking noise rises. Her hand tightens around his fingers.

His name floods her tongue, but it freezes there. Genji’s wide eyes send her heart into a gallop. Blatant, complete fear takes him as he flips his tail, lunging forward to push her back.

“Get out of the—”

The water erupts with a writhing mass. Black as the abyss it came from, a thick tendril lashes out. A scream fills Angela’s throat as three, varying shapes of red eyes blink underneath the surface. More black, dripping tendrils begin withering out of the water. Genji lies nearly on top of her, but he turns to face the monster. Splashing water makes her already panicking movements slick. The only sanctuary is farther on the rock shelf. She doesn’t get a hold on him before a tendril wraps around Angela’s backside, and over Genji. It twists around their torsos, pushing them together. Lifting them as if weightless, the tentacle drags them into the water.

There isn’t enough air in her lungs as they’re dragged through the black, festering bubbles of the monster occupied sea. Blurred, red eyes as large as a person blink separately. Briefly in the tossing and dragging motion, the sensation of Genji’s fingers wrapping around her thumb becomes a small light in the black ocean. Under the slimy texture of the tentacle wrapping them tightly together, they hold on.

They’re thrust onto the surface. Gasping, Angela inhales deeply. Her chest struggles to expand against Genji while bound so tightly in the monster’s grip . Still, she prepares for another whiplash handling from the unnameable creature.

“I don’t like my hand being forced, but you keep making this difficult, Shimada.” Moira steps closer to the rock shell, at ease in front of the monstrosity currently handling them.

Angela can hardly see past his black hair, but the tension of his shoulder blades brush against her collarbones. The tentacle keeps them partly submerged. Their arms are pinned to their sides while Angela can barely kick her feet. She tries to struggle or slip away, but the pressure is locked tight. His tail thrashes for a moment, straining, but they remain trapped.

“How is this—How do you control the Reaper?” Genji demands, shouting across the cavern. “Did you make the Reaper, sea witch?”

Moira’s sharp brow raises at his intensity, almost amused.

“The Reaper is my pet.” She glances briefly to the swirling water, pleased. “No one else could control him.”

With her heart in her throat, she looks down to the three large eyes just underneath the water. It holds them up like a prized catch. The body of the creature is a convulsing black mass, an abyss given life. The many tentacles spring everywhere out of its body leaves only enough surface for the terrifying, red eyes. A cauldron of terror brews inside of her at the sight.

What he calls the Reaper only brings about tales of the Kraken to her mind. A terrifying, squid like beast that sinks whole ships. That’s the only possible reasoning Angela has for such a monster. Helpless in its clutch, she tries to slow her panicking heart.

At the command of the sea witch, it obeys. The weight of Genji’s back and scales pressing against her front makes her near breathless.

“Genji,” she whispers.

He’s just able to turn his head, taking in her face for a second. Tension races through him as he tries to flip his tail. Squirming tendrils fill the space around them.

“Tell your monster to let us go, Moira,” Genji snarls. “You know my clan will find out if you harmed one of their own, and my father—”

“Your father has nothing to do with this,” Moira interjects sharply. “We still have unfinished business.”

“The deal is off,” he states, certain, “You can’t get anything if you kill me.”

“I’m fully aware,” Moira says. Stepping forward, another foreign word falls off of her tongue. A gasp rips free from Angela’s mouth at the sudden black mass ripping apart the woman’s legs like shredded fabric. It expands into smaller, twisting tentacles as Moira straightens once again. What was once human now carries herself with the lower half of an octopus. The black flesh carries up her stomach and chest.

More tension rolls through Genji. He bares his teeth at the sight of the sea witch dipping one tentacle into the water. The transformation leaves Angela stunned.

“This is the new proposition,” she says. “You offer all of your magic, and in exchange, I won’t kill your human.”

“No,” Angela breathes out. No words of agreement fall from his mouth, but the slower flickers of his tail send a clear message. Moira just dug her claws into his weak point. “No, you can’t, Genji.”

The sea witch presses her lips into an unpleasant line. Leveling her odd color gaze, Moira’s stares sends ice into her veins. Angela squirms desperately to move an inch or even to squeeze Genji’s hand.

“Human, I don’t believe you understand the situation.” A new word falls from her mouth. Angela inhales deeply as Genji thrashes his tail.

“Moira, no—” Genji is cut off as the creature pulls them back under.

The sheer force rips them through the water like paper dolls. Between the dark cave walls, and the black mass of the creature, Angela can’t grasp up or down. The tentacle suddenly tightens, squeezing her rib cage against Genji before flinging them free.

Bubbles and rushing water all blur together. The surface doesn’t exist. A monster overtakes the entire space save for the little ocean she struggles in. Genji isn’t against her. A slow burn begins in her lungs.

Disorientated, Angela stills her limbs. A racing heart still pounds in her chest, but this isn’t where she belongs. Genji knows this. The trust of Genji coming for her burns alongside her lungs. The water swirls with cruel tendrils, ruining anything concrete. A deep pulse of pain echoes in her head. The violent motion of their handling is seeping into her soft skin and thin bones.

A brush of a hand moves along her arm. Desperate fingers almost get to her before a black tentacle wraps around her waist. His green tail appears for a second in the chaos of the never ending water, like a lighthouse at the edge of a stormy sea.

Ripped away, the faintest echo of Genji’s cry follows her as she’s thrown out of the water. Her body skids across the rock shelf like a pebble. Tumbling over herself, Angela finally comes to a stop. A harsh breath leaves her as she blinks slowly. The cold slab of rock brings a little anchoring.

“Angela!”

His voice finds her amongst the confusion and aching. Her entire body is almost lost in a beaten and bruised ache. Moving one arm underneath her, she props her head up, looking over her shoulder.

A slender tentacle wraps around her throat like a vice. In the water, Genji is once again held in the twisting grasp of the monster. He struggles against the tentacle, helplessly watching the sea witch drag her across the rock.

“Let’s complete this deal, Shimada,” Moira speaks evenly as her lower body carries her across the ground. The pressure of her tentacle crushes Angela’s throat. A strangled breath leaves her as she kicks out and tugs at the choke hold. She refuses this, being a tool, a weapon against him, but Moira dumps her back into the water.

She braces for more violent throwing of her person, but only finds the tentacle still wrapped firmly around her throat. Her head is just barely kept above the surface. Almost bobbing in the surging waters, Angela finally has a moment to focus her vision.

“Let her go!” Genji snarls. Kept apart by only a few paces, he’s entirely contained by a constricting, black tendril. Something in the air stirs. The taste of salt sudden impresses itself upon her tongue as rage storms across Genji’s cheekbones.

She tries clawing at Moira’s vice, but she creeps closer to the edge. Wrapping another slimy appendage around her, her arms become folded in front of her chest. As if paralyzed, Angela can only twitch her fingers in a struggle to push back. Moira’s focus remains entirely upon the merman.

“Careful, Shimada,” she says, looming above Angela. Her own meat shield. “Your human will get caught in the path of your spirit dragon if you unleash it upon me.”

His clench jaw doesn’t relax, but the air lessens. Blinking once, an almost emerald glow resides in his irises that Angela has never seen before. It disappears as the salt on her tongue does too.

“The deal is set, you just have to agree,” Moira speaks calmly. It is only business to her. The monster and Angela’s life serve only as tools to further her goal. Even Genji sees this, as his suspend person stills. A few drops of the ocean fall off of his fins.

“Genji, don’t do it,” Angela cries out. Her twitching hands remain underneath the surface, but she still fights Moira’s alien grasp. There is only certain doom encasing her, but Genji can still swim. He can still fight with his magic.

If it’s entirely taken away, it could be akin to losing his soul. He may very well be losing everything. A merman without his magic simply won’t be.

“You can’t do it. You can’t give up your magic for—”

Another flash of rage strikes his expression when Moira shifts her grip. The slimy texture tightens around her head, shutting her mouth. It causes a small sound of fear to squeak in her throat. Her brow and eyes crumble for a moment.

Entirely bound, she stays completely at the mercy of the sea witch. Her heart is alive and beating against the constricting, alternate form of Moira’s. In the water, she’s held at just the surface. It would be all to easy to dip her head underneath, and hold her there.

Death is much more terrifying for him, then it is for her. The thought of her losing him again is as suffocating at this. She can’t do that again.

She will pay this price.

“Okay. I’ll make the deal. Let her go.”

Darkness clouds the falling locks of his hair. He only looks to her as he says this. Resigned, and accepting.

She tries to scream, to shout at him to refuse, that this decision isn’t just his, but Moira is already speaking an unintelligible word. The Kraken like beast shifts its many limbs, dropping Genji with a small splash.

He jets forward, swimming to her when Moira rips her back. The sea witch falls into the water, presenting herself as a barrier. Genji glares at her, but stops. Angela remains bound tightly at the sea witch’s back.

“I will only make the deal if along with it, Angela is given protection from you and any of your monsters, and an immunity to drowning.” Genji breathes out firmly. A fury rolls silently underneath his skin and scales, but he stays afloat with this. Slowly, his gaze finds her through all of the terror. “I know you’ll kill us immediately after you get my magic. That is part of it, or I won’t make it.”

Moira tilts her head. Annoyed at his agenda, but also acknowledges his proactivity.

She parts her lips, but Genji cuts his hand through the water.

“If you kill her now, I won’t stop until you are die, or I am.”

Angela tries to shake her head, but the tentacles tighten. This is not something her stubbornness can beat from him. The words he just spoke are entirely true. The pressure squeezes her neck. An almost animal urge overwhelms her chest to break free, to save him, but she is only kept still.

He can’t do this. Not for both of them. Angela blinks away a mixture of her own salt and the sea.

“Are you finished?”

Slowly, Genji lowers his gaze. He breathes out once before nodding as the water laps at his shoulders.

“I agree, Shimada.” Moira holds out her hand, twisted with purple veins and long, sharp claws.

His eyes meets her. In the chaos of all that surrounds them, he mouths something only for her.

“You can’t lose me again.”

His face only holds that of a promise. Angela fights back against Moira’s grip, but stays confined. How is she suppose to keep him safe if he does this? This isn’t her and him anymore. There isn’t any hope in his choice. The sacrifices he keeps making for her over and over are breaking her chest.

She can’t lose him again.

“I agree, Moira,” Genji speaks. Lifting his dripping fingers from the water, he stalls for a heartbeat.

_No._

Salt floods Angela’s mouth once more as Genji grasps the sea witch’s hand. The water seems to boil with the pact, simmering as varying purple and yellow light erupts from the witch’s palm.

Moira’s tentacles throw her aside in the water. Gasping out, the sudden lightness to her person creates a new objective. The monster still waits just below her kicking feet. Through the air, the sound of Genji groaning cuts into her chest.

A green as bright as Genji’s tail bursts into the cavern. The ocean falls back from the merman and the sea witch, shoving Angela underneath. Enveloping light grows. A roar of a towering, fearsome beast fills Angela’s head, but not her ears. It doesn’t emit from the black monster.

In the sea, Angela blinks, facing upwards. Everything is muffled, quiet. Her back drifts down towards the writhing black monster as the green light from Genji’s person rushes at her.

She opens her mouth, letting bubbles escape. An energy akin to the salt of the ocean and the strength of the tide surges without restraint. The light moves like a breathing thing. Reshaping itself, a maw forms. The abyss monster underneath Angela writhes its many appendages, slipping out of the cave.

The maw moves into a slippery, fin decorated head. Piercing eyes form as a tail of a serpent follows the dragon like head. She is nothing, but the center of this being’s focus. In the dark, churning waters, the serpent opens its jaws. A steady certainty fills her center as she sinks slowly. The water doesn’t cradle her. The being strikes through the sea with green, glowing eyes.

This is her death. She leaves him alone, without his magic. The sea witch lied.

_Genji…_

She closes her eyes. A cruel grief allows the water to overwhelm her throat. Salt flows over her tongue.

It attacks, jaws open wide.

A strength touches her limbs. The green energy crashes upon her, warming her skin in the cold waters like a falling sun. Roaring of the being fills her mind. Swallowed into its center, Angela inhales the ocean.

The green eyes overwhelm her. It’s roar turns into a command. Slowly, her fists loosen. A hold she didn’t realize she had lets go of the stagnation within her. She is no longing unchanging. She breathes in the water. Its blue form takes to her veins, her heart, her rib cage.

The serpent takes her.

In a flash of overwhelming, twisted yellow and purple light, the being is swept back. The serpent unhinges its jaw and lets her fall from its hold. It leaves her unwillingly.

The ocean keeps moving with her. Her eyelids become heavy. The green eyes are gone. A jet of darkness fills the cold waters. It seems to seep into her as well, as if the great being left a hole in her chest. The pounding of the tide returns to her head.

Drowning is much slower than she thought.

The closing of her eyes are of her own choice. She’ll keep his image in her mind, until she goes. Dying doesn’t hold pain, at least.

“Angela.”

She tries to smile, but she keeps sinking.

“Angela.” His desperate voice comes crystal clear through the water. Maybe the sea witch killed him, too.

“Look at me,” he pleads. Hands suddenly take her upper arms. “Please, open your eyes.”

Water moves with her. Perhaps it wants to take her away. In and out of her throat and chest, the ocean moves with her lungs. Or the illusion of it. The sensation of her beating heart keeps within her, but it should have stopped a long time ago.

Yet, she opens her eyes. Like a wave crashing against shore, she finds him. The dancing color of sepia holds with terror in his gaze. All at once, he exhales with her, the water in his mouth and gills.

His hands cling to her as they both sink in the dark depths. His tail flickers weakly behind him. Dark bruises color around his eyes like death. Hauntingly tired, Genji still holds onto her.

What was once fear, turns to slow relief and astonishment. A sickness seems to take the glimmer of his scales and the bright tone of his skin. She flinches, closing her mouth to the ocean.

He’s too weak to take her to the surface.

A burning will overtakes any grief in her blood. She tries to kick out, but finds the motion wrong. Something still flickers, but it isn’t wrinkled feet struggling through the weight of the water. She stalls. Nothing in her lungs burn. Nothing in her brain or body panic at the depths and how long she’s been under.

As if she’s meant to be here.

She reaches out to touch his face. There is little strength to him, but something keeps his gaze unwavering upon her. They both sink. A profound and unreadable emotion tugs his lips apart in wordlessness. As if he’s found the heart of the sea. Following his line of sight, her eyes fall down her person. The black bikini top still wraps around her chest, but her skin stops at the hips.

Beyond that, scales erupt into a smooth, glimmering tail. A hue as pink as one of the seashells Genji usually gives her stains it. The delicate, thin fins waver through the dark waters like ribbons. A gentle pink in the crushing black.

She jerks her head back to him. Shock opens her mouth, but no bubbles float to the surface. Only a soft sensation tickles along her rib cage. Gills. Gills which flow the ocean through her, letting her breathe.

“Genji,” she speaks tentatively. It echoes perfectly through the water, as if her vocal cords are adapted for such things. Panic slowly drips into her center.

“How…?” he asks, but there is just as much bewilderment as there is lack of energy within him.

Angela moves her tail. The act is one, focused flip of scales and fins. A new muscle. A new limb. They stop sinking as her hands curl into her chest, terrified.

She breathes the ocean out when she says, “I’m a mermaid.”


	6. Chapter 6

“You let the human drag my brother onto land,” Hanzo all but snarls. His blue fin cuts through the water, nearly shaking with rage. A foreign, blue glow burns in the center of his eyes. The infamous spirit dragons that the clan claims, lives inside of him. **  
**

“There was very little I could do, especially with Genji getting in my way.” Amélie narrows her brow, but keeps her tail relaxed. “You also neglected to inform me that they were romantically inclined.“

“He’s  _not_  in love with the human,” he snaps. “He’s just fixated on being spiteful to Father and I with this foolishness.”

Amélie laughs once, tilting her head back slightly. The denial of what simply is must be painfully obvious to him as well.

“Hanzo, only creatures in love act so hastily and desperately.” She crosses her arms. “The human seemed to think I was after both of them, not just her. She did what she thought would protect him from me.”

Her gaze finds his barely contained rage.

Amélie adds, “but that means she’ll return him to the ocean soon. I can’t cover all of the land edges solely.”

“You need my assistance to do the job I’m paying you for,” Hanzo all but barks. His deep blue tail is a tense mess of agitation. Even in the smokescreen of rage, Amélie senses the edge of concern.

“I do now that it involves your brother much more.” A sharp clawed hand cuts through the water in a waving gesture. “Of course, if you don’t find it fit to pay me for my services, you will have to search for him and the human on your own.”

Amélie flips her fins once, turning away. On the edge of the reef, she brushes her mane of long hair behind her. It wavers in the ocean with the motion of her purple tail before Hanzo calls out.

“Don’t you dare go anywhere. We are searching for my brother, now.”

Amélie’s sharp tooth smile barely appears, before she shifts her scales back to his side.

*

A false panic flares out in her brain. Her mouth remains closed, afraid of the water rushing in to steal her air. The subtle motion along her rib cage is foreign, strange. The lines of delicate gills move with her heartbeat, keeping her awake and aware.

“I don’t know how…” Genji trails off once more. Her back still falls towards the abyss as Genji floats above her, barely clinging onto her shoulders. Astonishment as well as weakness paints him entirely, like a bloody canvas. The dullness set to his scales, and pale, bruised look to his skin already overwhelms her chest. The added notion that she can’t kick her legs, or even properly control her new appendage is starting to crush her chest.

“Genji,” she dares squeak out. She wants to close her eyes, to believe its a dream. A dark, lifelessness circles his eyes, scaring her center into focusing upon him.

She’s not human. Her entire frame threatens to fall apart.

“Angela,” his voice barely raises into something firm. He’s too breathy, as if winded. “Move your tail up and down.”

Her head shakes as she curls her hands into herself. Fear strikes her again and again, not wanting to feel the glimmering, strong tail just below her waist. The ocean moves all over her, like a current but it doesn’t tug and thrash. It invites, and begs her to move along.

“I-I can’t. I don’t know how… I don’t have my legs. I’m not—” her voice wavers like a sea tossed ship. Panic bleeds into every edge of her person. Genji is hurt, somehow. She’s different, not what she was once or ever thought of being.

“I know,” his hands cup her face, forcing her frantic gaze to stay upon him, “I know you’re scared and overwhelmed and different but we have to leave here now. I don’t have enough strength to swim with you.”

Slowly, her hands move to wrap loosely around his wrists. Even how, as he cradles her face, he feels light. As if one little wave would wash him away. The sea witch did something to him, something to make his eyes so dull and his tail so limp.

“Genji,” her new voice nearly cracks in the dark waters. “You’re sick…”

A grimace crosses his features before he shakes his head. The motion of his fins barely follow, lifeless.

“We have to move now,” he looks up to the cave entrance. It seems impossible to reach, like starting at the summit of a mountain while standing at the base. “Before Moira comes back.”

His urgency causes her to truly breathe. Slowly, she opens her mouth, and allows the gentle motion of her gills. They move as easily as her lungs. Daring to look down the length of her person, to the startling pink scales and the delicate but strong fins, Angela tests her tail once. The fin flickers up and down, moving her a little above the dark abyss.

“There you go,” he encourages. “You can do it, Angelfish.”

Her expression is anything but confident, but there isn’t just weakness upon his face. It’s wonder, amazement, a dream he thought would only stay so. Tentatively, she flicks her whole tail, rising in the dark waters. Her hands long to curl up against her chest, or even hold herself. She stalls, and stares at her new, pink tail, but she doesn’t stop.

The abyss looms heavily underneath them. Angela strokes her arms through the water awkwardly. Genji almost laughs at this as she comes behind him.

“You don’t have to use your arms to swim, let your tail do all the work.” The smallest smile tugs at his lips as she takes a hold of his arms. He falls against her easily. This is something beyond exhaustion or even sickness taking over him. As if he’s bleeding death right before her eyes but she can’t locate the wound.

“Genji…” she almost breaks again, but closes her eyes. He’s still warm and pressed against her. He’s still here.

They have to get out of here.

“Your fins are strong,” he says as she hesitates. “You can swim us both out of here.”

She drops her gaze. Down the length of his back and tail, the green and pink scales float closely together. Comparing them side by side, Angela notes how even more terribly his tail looks.

She’s really a mermaid.

“Okay,” she breathes, feeling the flare of her gills. Holding underneath his arms, as if once again dragging him upon the ground, Angela moves her tail. Weakly, she tugs them both up, before gaining confidence at his touch. He remains limp and still in her grasp.

She moves her tail faster, waving it back and forth. As the darkness is left underneath, and the breaking dawn shines just above the surface, Angela understands. The times she’s watched his swift, sure movements upon the ocean floor. The few moments he’s race past her to the rocks. This is his world, one she’s barely in.

The urge to poke her head above the surface is strong, but she swims them out of the swallow opening of the cave. Away from the rocks and darkness, a burning sun rises over the horizon. A soft, blending yellow and blue paint the rippling waters above them.

Oddly enough, the twisting and turning of her fin is slowly falling into place. It still alienates her body from her mind, the smooth, flickering motion instead of kicking and paddling. She can’t stare for long at the pink scales decorating her hip line that smooth out into a slender tail.

Everything is terrifying and new, but Genji keeps encouraging her. The instructions of moving her tail, or even heading into a new direction are gentle. He murmurs soft things to calm her fluttering heart. She can’t help but reminisce on when she first panicked in the water as a child, and the little merman had calmed her down.

The dawn barely finishes into a bright morning when Angela finds a sandy area along the ocean floor. Still pulling Genji along, she lowers them both to the clear spot. Genji barely has enough energy to fold his tail underneath him and sit up. Her own all but collapses with her on the ground as she props herself up with her arms, uncertain. As if her tail is dead weight. The new mechanics and motions of the tail still befuddle her.

The overwhelming emotions she’s kept at bay for this long finally begin to rip at her throat. Angela only manages to move closer to Genji for the sheer fact he looks as if he’s going to fall unconscious. Awkwardly shifting her tail across the sand, she takes him in her arms. With nothing left to give, Genji all but collapsed against her chest. Her tail sprawls out alongside him and his green scales.

“Genji, your magic,” she breathes out finally.

“I know.” His gills flutter with the rise and fall of his chest. He needs rest. “I’m so sorry, Angela. I shouldn’t have let you come with me. If I had known Moira was in control of the Reaper, I never would have gone to that witch.”

She clutches him, taking in the comforting weight of his person. An anchor to the stormy waves they’re both trying to ride.

“Did she take all of it,” she trembles. Genji can hardly manage to flicker his tail in response.

“Yes,” he murmurs against her softly. His hands reach up to hold onto her arms that cross over his chest. “She took my spirit dragon.”

Something deeper cracks within him. A piece of his soul ripped away by the sea witch’s sharp claws. For her sake, no less.

“That’s why you’re so weak. And that monster… what was that?” She can hardly think back on the terrible creature without feeling her throat close with fear. The three, large eyes still blink slowly at her in the back of her mind.

“We call it the Reaper.” Genji starts, grim. “It’s killed so many mers, but no one ever thought it was controlled by someone. It was simply a monster that existed, and attacked randomly. It’s taken down dozen of human ships, too.”

Angela shudders at what Moira could possible do with such a thing. The sea witch not only has that, but Genji’s magic and spirit dragon as well. He clings to her now, as if on death’s bed. The slow, harsh movements of his breathing and his closing eyes send terror into her heart. She holds him tighter.

They have to get his magic back.

Her tail shifts, the pink moving along the sand. She stiffens as she stares before looking back to Genji’s dark hair in the water. She’s never been so close, and within the blue. The times she did spend more than a few minutes underneath the surface were with the aid of an oxygen tank and diving gear. Now, she’s cradling him upon the ocean floor, in his world.

There were dreams of swimming with him without the limits of air and time. She always clung onto them until she could dive into the water alongside him.

“How do you feel?” he asks. His irises stray along her belly to where the skin melts away into pink scales. She almost laughs, but stops it from bubbling up for the fear of it sounding hysterical.

“Terrified,” she murmurs into his hair. Even as her insides twist at the lack of legs, she feels foreign. Not entirely gone, but new. As if she’s become something she’s never known and she’s afraid to be lost in it. The tail and gills and underwater life.

“I’m going to help you through this,” he swears upon his weak breath. His thumb rubs along her arm in comfort. “When you were… changed, did you see Moira’s magic coming upon you?”

The jaws of the great being still seem to hold her. Angela tenses against him.

“No. I saw a large, green, water serpent. It… I thought it was going to kill me.”

Genji tilts his head back to hold her gaze, visibly startled

“My spirit dragon? How is that possible?” Clearly perplexed, he still doesn’t look away from her eyes. “I didn’t think my magic was even capable of turning a human into a mermaid.”

That monstrous thing is—was a part of him?

The answer hits her like a large wave. The deal Genji made wasn’t just for him.

“You told Moira that in the deal, I would have an immunity to drowning,” Angela speaks slowly in dawning realization. “But your magic carried out that part of the agreement.”

Genji stills underneath her grasp. Slowly, his fins nearly flicker to lay over hers. The fine membranes of pretty, colored flesh look like jewelry together.

“You can’t drown now,” he speaks in awe. “I… that was never my intention, Angela. I didn’t want this for you. I was suppose to become human so we could be together.”

He was suppose to become human for her. The barrier of the sea and land wouldn’t stop them from seeing each other anymore. Now, she’s entirely in his understanding. Compatible and new and terrified.  

She’s selfish. Her hands were crafted to heal mortal wounds, not cut through the water. This isn’t her home, but she’s asking Genji to give it up all the same. Is it so hard for her to give up everything for him, too?

A sensation pricks at her eyes, as her chest shudders and her gills stop and start, but no tears leak into the salt water. Mermaids don’t cry.

“Hey, Angelfish,” he says gently, clutching at her arms. His voice wavers at hearing and feeling her emotion. “We’ll figure this out.”

“I’m so sorry, Genji,” she sobs into his hair. Pathetically, she curls her tail closer to herself. As if they were legs she could hug but she can only hug him tighter. The pink fins dig into the sand. Running away from the tail is impossible.

“No, don’t say that.” Harshly breathing, he turns in her hold. Taking her face once more, he brings her back from the edge of the abyss. “I know you’re scared and this isn’t what we planned but we’ll figure it out.”

She wants to shake her head, but she won’t ask him to change them both. Now when they are right here, ready to swim off into their own oasis.

He smiles, managing with his pale expression and weak, barely opened eyes. She wants to sob harder.

“I’ll help you adjust to your tail, your beautiful tail, and I’ll keep teaching you how to swim like me.” He glows at the last part. The weight of his tail seemingly not so much in that moment. A weak laugh falls from her tongue at seeing the same scenario playing out as it did years ago when they were children.

Leaning into him, their foreheads touch. Pressed together, both shaken and bruised, his comfort becomes warm in her chest. The edges of his fins still touch over hers, as startling as it is. There is good things within both of their curses.

“Okay, fish boy,” she whispers. He moves only to kiss her forehead.

“I won’t let you go,” he promises. His weak hands still hold her cheeks, but she takes him so he can lean against her. Upon the sand, they settle upon it like seashells after they’ve been tossed into the sea.

“Genji, we have to get your magic back,” Angela says. It’s what will stop this slow decay.

Genji parts his lips, buts decides against what was on his tongue. Instead, he says, “I need to sleep, just for a little bit. Then, we’ll figure something out.”

Her arms already secure him against her. His cheek rests upon her collarbone. The strong, toned form of his torso seems to only be an illusion as he barely holds himself. She can give that to him. She’ll stay together, even as the sun rises far above the surface. Nodding slowly against him, she keeps her gaze away from her lower half.

“Okay, I’ll take care of you.”

The whisper falls into the sea just as his eyelids droop. His arms move to encase her waist, mindful of the gills just underneath her arms. She doesn’t have to witness his slow movements and dull scales to know he’s nearly lost without his magic. This rest won’t fix everything, but it could help him in the slightest.

She stares at the waters as he sleeps. Without the cover of goggles as she once needed, everything is sharp and define. There are bright corals to the right of where they rest. A few fish swim close up on land, all uncaring about the mers a few paces away. When her gaze tilts back to stare upwards, the sun wavers through the water. Compared to the black cave of Moira’s, there is calmness in this ocean.

Couldn’t she stay here with him? Can’t she love him enough to give up everything else?

She doesn’t dwell on that now, least she wake him up with her sobbing. The soft motions of his gills comfort her with his stable health for the time being. She is not so lucky as to have sleep tug at her edges. The scales and fins make sure of that, even when she slowly shifts them just to feel the strange, new motion.

The sun passes at a steady pace. Angela keeps with it, calming herself along with acknowledging her strange person. Keeping Genji held in her arms as he rests helps collects her thoughts. Until, a shift in the water causes her to flinch.

She sits up, causing Genji to moan softly. Her eyes flit across the space as she searches sharply for the source.

Her arms tighten with a refusal of letting anything happen to him when she finds purple scales glimmering darkly. The long mane of hair falling from her head brings back thoughts of drowning. The same, lethal tail flickers slowly in their presence, just above the sand. Her lips are parted, revealing sharp teeth.

“Well, isn’t that lovely,” Amélie muses.

She parts her lips in defense, but the words catch in her throat as she finds a merman at her side. Long black hair is tied back with a ribbon. His deep blue tail stills upon the sight of them. His focus falls upon Genji, before his sharp stare moves to her.

“Unhand my brother,” he snarls.


	7. Chapter 7

Stirring awake due to the increasingly sharp voices, one of which belongs to the one holding him, Genji eases his eyes open. A quiet groan escapes him. His cheek rests against her shoulder as she props him upright. Tucked into her side, she acts as a cradle for his weak, lacking body. Her arms shift, as if shielding him.

“Angelfish?” he asks. Her body is tense, placed like a barrier against something. Her tail—her beautiful, pink tail—flickers in sharp anxiety. The sand stirs up at her cautious movements over him.

“Release Genji, and I’ll let you live.” The snarling, superior voice echoes like half of his memories inside his aching skull. Genji manages to raise his head, jerking Angela’s attention to him as he takes in the scene.

Hanzo is only a few paces away. His teeth are bared in a growl as the water flows his ponytail around his head. Even his blue fins radiate with violent anger, but then still at the sight of Genji’s conscious state. The dangerous, dark scales of Amélie reside just behind him, uninterested in the current tension. Aside from the strip of black cloth covering her chest, a dark strap wraps across her hips. He already knows it contains the dagger that gave him a large scar across his chest. A few, curious flickers of her gold eyes will fall to Angela’s tail, but nothing more is given.

“Stay back,” Angela orders sharply. Her fins flip up sand as she tucks him tighter against her. “I’m not going to let you take him.”

“Insolent—”

“Hanzo, calm down,” Genji says, managing to not fall back against her chest. The smallest amount of energy to turn his tail in the sand leaves him breathless. Carefully, Angela loosens her hold so he can arrange himself to somewhat float off the sand bar.

“Slowly, Genji. Don’t exert yourself,” she instructs softly. She flips her tail to keep at his side. Supporting his arms so he can clutch at hers, her scales brush gently against his. His gills flare at the little endeavor, as if he just swam across the ocean and back.

Hanzo’s stare cuts over their interactions like the nose of a swordfish. The unyielding, judgmental eyes of his brother stops on him. They take in the dull color of his tail, and the almost plastic like texture to his pale skin. No doubt the flesh around his eyes is as dark as bruises. There is very little energy left within him to even roll his eyes at Hanzo’s reaction.

The lost of his magic is physically visible. The dragon spirit, a being consisting as part of his soul, has left him with very little. His body has never known such an emptiness, as if the sea witch took the very life from his tail and chest. The slow decay Angela is already working herself over, along with her own paralyzing new form, is going to worsen. A merman without his magic is as good as dead.

Angela doesn’t know that.

“Genji,” Hanzo starts firmly, barely keeping his cool. “Tell me what happened to you. Who is this mermaid?”

Angela’s tail shifts once at the sudden attention. The concern for him twists with struggling anxiety at the eyes upon her new person. His thumbs rub gently along her arms. Genji opens his mouth but is cut off by Amélie’s cold tone.

“That mermaid was the human you sent me to kill, Hanzo.”

Glowering at the purple tailed creature, Genji saves his words for the storm brewing in Hanzo’s expression.

“That’s not possible—is that why you don’t have your magic?” As if answering his own question, he speeds onwards with a burning tone. “Did you somehow use all of it turning your land pet into a mer? Genji, are you so stupid as to throw away your own life on a whim?”

Genji flinches at the last sentence uttered. Angela turns upon him. Her grip tightens. What was once anxiety molds sharply into shining fear.

“Genji,” she breathes, only wanting the denial of what she’s about to ask, “Are you dying? Because you gave up your magic?”

He can see the edge of terror gripping her irises. Quickly, she takes his hands. She clutches his fingers like a lifeline, and Genji can hardly do little else with weakness tugging at his every edge. A frustrating growl of his own powerlessness threatens to escape his throat, but he keeps it down.   

“I was going to tell you, but not before I came up with someway to get my magic back from Moira.”

“The sea witch?” Amélie asks, flashing her gold eyes. There are very few in the ocean who doesn’t know of Moira’s doings. “She has your magic, doesn’t she?”

“What?” Hanzo demands.

“I didn’t give up my magic in exchange for Moira turning Angela into a mermaid,” he exasperates. “Moira threatened us with the Reaper.”

Both Hanzo and Amélie stiffen at the name alone. The strong and deadly mers exchanged an alarmed look.

“You make it sound as if she’s controlling that monster,” Amélie presses.

“She is,” he says. An intrusive thought of the monster swallowing Angela whole shakes his mind. “I don’t know how, but Moira has the Reaper obeying her.”

“That sea witch!” Hanzo echoes, furious. “How could you possibly go to her, you foolish—”

“Enough, Hanzo,” Genji snaps. He already sees the trembling in Angela’s fins while she’s doing everything to keep face. “I’m not going to be lectured by you when you refused to help me. You left me no choice after you sent Amélie to drown Angela. You tried to kill her!”

Suddenly, he’s breathless and lightheaded. Angela’s arms immediately take his shoulders. The sudden fury to Hanzo’s face flickers at the sight in rare, deep concern. His tail even flips him closer, before Angela gives him a hard look.

“Calm down,” she murmurs gently. Now, she’s composed for his benefit. Even when all he’s been doing is piling rocks upon her shoulders and forcing her to keep swimming. “Don’t work yourself up.”

“Brother,” Hanzo voice drops low, “You wouldn’t be like this if it weren’t for that human.”

Defensive, denying words await on his tongue but Genji nearly folds in half. Crumbling his brow, he ducks his head for a moment. His tail isn’t able to give any sign of life as he focuses on the flooding weariness within him. The anger trying to burn almost smokes him out entirely. The soft touch of her fingertips under the water keeps him steady. Gentle urging fall from her mouth to keep himself collected.

“I’m fine,” he says soothingly to her, before glaring to Hanzo once more.

“If you want to start helping me, go get food for Angela and I. Don’t come back if you’re only getting it for me. I won’t eat unless she does.”

Hanzo’s lips twist unpleasantly at that. His darker brown eyes flicker over to Angela in repulsiveness.  

“Genji,” she says firmly, but he nearly grinds his teeth. She isn’t going to give up anymore for his sake.

“We’re not going anywhere,” he speaks up, sending another sharp look at his brother. “Go, and decide what you’re going to do, Hanzo.”

His blue fin cuts through the water for a tense moment. Angela shifts once again to act as a shield for him.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Hanzo hisses, before turning away. He jerks his head to Amélie, who follows behind him with an intrigued expression after a heartbeat of staring at them both.

Genji simply lets himself float. There isn’t enough strength within him to do much else beside move his gills. Angela slips her arms around his torso, softly pushing him back down to the sandy bottom with a few, controlled flips of her tail. The pink scales shine like raindrops in the sun. Elegant but strong, blush colored fins help her to settle him against the ocean floor.

“Are you alright?” she asks as his eyes flutter for a moment. There is very little keeping him awake, save for her near tilting state and the pressing matter of his brother and hired killer.

He nods once, forcing his gaze to focus on her cheeks. The sun falls directly behind her head through the water, perhaps on purpose as to shade him from direct light. Slowly, her fingers brush along his temple, pushing back the short locks.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Genji?” she asks softly, eyes wavering like the water around her.

His current state is far from his immediate concern, save for the desire to sleep. Hanzo has found him and his love with that deadly mermaid in tow. Pink, glittering scales float just above him as she does her best to comfort him. The tail is terrifying her, as neither of them were prepared for this outcome. Here, she doesn’t cry or panic outright, but contains it for his sake.

“I’m sorry, Angelfish. I really was going to tell you,” he speaks slowly, hating the faraway sensation plaguing his head. Like his own chest is lacking his ribs and heart. “I just wanted to give you a little more time to come to terms with yourself.”

Her brow threatens to crumple, but she only closes her eyes for a heartbeat. The end of her tail flickers slowly as she still floats just above his resting place. Her eyes avoid looking down her person, or moving her lower half any more than necessary.

“You’re dying,” she says. Her hand lowers to cup his cheek. The soft skin of her palm rejuvenates him at the mere contact. “I’m not going to watch you die while you worry about me. We have to find Moira and get your magic back. We’ll make another deal somehow.”

She’s desperately reaching for anything to latch onto. One swift remedy but Genji shakes his head, stirring the sand underneath him. There is nothing in his heart that will allow that witch to get close to Angela again. This is his price, and she’s paying the cost. She’s already gave him too much.

He keeps taking from her. All of her affections and worries and fear, which are all focused upon him. The dragon is lost to him, just as he is now. A sharp fear of never feeling that part of him again paralyzes his chest. A slow withering is taking over his scales. His own body betrays him with weakness and a sharp wrongness. As if he’s force to swim through polluted waters.

She’s still the only thing keeping him breathing. The only person that makes him feel whole.

“I don’t want to you be scared.” His scales shift in the sand, finding the texture much more pleasant compared to the dry, rough particles upon the beach. Covering her hand that still holds over his cheek, he smiles reassuringly. She won’t have to bear his fear too. “I’m still here. This is still you.”

Her eyes flicker in uncertainty. The blue of her irises slowly fall over his person, lingering on his tail before sparing a second’s glance at her own. Her free hand curls loosen into her chest, as if needing to clutch her heart and know it’s the same as yesterday’s.

“Genji, I don’t feel real,” she says softly. “Like I’m just in a bad dream, but I know you’re still hurt and I’m useless to you right now…”

Her trailing words focus once more upon a slow building breath. Parting his lips to correct her assumptions, she beats him to it.

“You like me like this.”

His jaw closes with a soft clank of his teeth. Fumbling with his own truth, and what she needs to hear now, Genji combines both.

“I do. I think you’re the most perfect creature on this earth. I think your tail is marbled in Aphrodite’s own making. I think having you here with me without needing a break to the surface is like paradise,” he starts slowly, confirming her thoughts.

A wave of deep, blue sadness touches her cheeks before he squeezes her hand. The end of her fin flickers with vulnerability.

“You are doing so well despite having this forced upon you,” he reassures gently. He was ready to trade his tail for legs, not for her to join him in the sea. How jarring and terrifying that is without any way to brace for it. Here, she still manages to keep herself together, as he lies weak in the sand like a sunken ship.

“But we have plans I plan to keep.” He takes in her eyes which shimmer with hope at this. “No matter what, we’ll end up happy and together. We’ll make sure of that. You and me, Angelfish.”

Her head falls for one quiet, weary sigh. A smile, though small, touches her lips for the first time since they came upon Moira’s cave.

Genji lifts his arm up to her floating position, ignoring how his hands tremble with effort.

“Can I?” he asks gently.

Hesitation stalls her nod, but she allows him to hook his hands around her waist. The pink scales are inches from his fingers. Gently, he pulls her against him as they lie once more on the sand. His empty, pulse echoing center keeps him from properly holding her, but she lies against his chest all the same. Her cheek falls onto the space just below his throat.

“Don’t… touch my tail,” she murmurs, stirring the water against his skin. “Not yet.”

In response, he brings his hands up along her back and rests them just under her gills. It was a natural desire to touch her beautiful tail, but he keeps her comfortable. Simply feeling her presence over his body soothes some of the vastness within. Her tail settles alongside his.

“I won’t,” he breathes. “Not until you’re okay. I just wanted to hold you. You make me feel not as weak.”

She closes her eyes as if he said something ridiculous.

“How do we get your magic back?” she whispers.

He wants to shake his head, but simply sighs, “Hanzo and I will figure out what our next move is. I’m… ugh, I’m falling asleep again.”

The softest concern tugs at her eyes as she raises her head. One gentle hand raises to touch his cheek.

“Sleep, I’ll wake you when they return,” she says. “I’ve got you.”

He’s drifting away before she can even lay back down against him.

*

Genji’s brother, and the killer mermaid return with half dead fish in their hands. Sharply aware that the two would rather have Angela stop breathing, she quickly wakes Genji. He stirs with worsening dark marks around his eyes and duller scales. The rest was only a small stall to his decaying state, but Angela keeps her bubbling anxiety within her chest.

There is a faint hollow feeling within her belly, but nothing of the uncooked, still struggling fish tempt her. Hanzo demands privacy to speak with Genji about their current situation but Genji throws aside the notion of her leaving his side. She wishes for an illusion of calm control, but there is nothing of the sort within her grasp. Fear of her own, foreign person and environment makes her want to cling to him.

Amélie cuts in with the suggestion of she and Angela going just below the surface. Which would leave the two within sights of the other but allow the brothers to converse about the current situation. Another refusal almost leaves Genji’s tired mouth before Angela accepts. The purple tail mermaid only brings back memories of panic, but it will give them a chance to figure out a way to save Genji.

If she could give her right eye in exchange for Genji’s magic, Angela would. This… this is all she can do now.

Amélie confides that Hanzo hasn’t order her to kill her now that she’s no longer human. Barely a small comfort, but they both take it. She leaves him with a quick kiss to his lips before ordering him to eat. It almost makes her insides twist to leave him with the support of his brother, but Angela slowly swims after Amélie.

Her first instinct is to stroke through the water with her arms. Slowly rising into the late, golden evening, Angela flickers her tail slowly. The first time she’s be without Genji’s touch is when she works her fins now. It feels crushing, nearly wrong, but she stills in the middle of the ocean.

Amélie’s smooth shoulders and toned belly work through the currents like a dancer upon a stage. The scales of deep, mysterious purple shimmer and twirl as she swims without hesitation. As if a wave herself, Amélie wavers her tail. She continues above her, uninterested in her stalling.

Angela looks back to the sand bar. His dull, emerald tail is tucked underneath him as Hanzo supports Genji’s shoulder. He’s too weak to even float just a few inches off of the sand. Slowly, her hands come to slowly twist in front of her chest, as if wanting to clench her heart. The softest edge of anguish and longing brushes against her rib cage. As if she’s once again the little girl on the beach, feeling lost as she waits for him to return even though the sun has long since set.

“What are you doing?” Amélie’s cold voice jars Angela’s attention. Jerking her chin up, the dark mermaid glares at her from a few feet up. “Come on.”

Her gaze flickers one last time to Genji before swimming upwards. Amélie stays just a few inches below the calm surface, swishing her tail slowly back and forth like a shark prowling.

As the setting sun places a gentle, golden film above the surface, Angela reaches for it. Once, the urge to break the surface and breathe air controlled her. Her fingertips now reach just below the ending of the water. She’s hovering, afraid, before touching the edge and breaking through.

Her fingertips aren’t pruney, and the air feels too open and cold.

“Do you know how Hanzo intends to help Genji?” Angela asks quietly. She wants to fold in on herself, but brings her hands together over her stomach, and holds her tail stiffly.

“We discussed bringing him back to the Clan leader, but the Princes most likely won’t go with that option.” Amélie brushes her ponytail back over her shoulder. “They both fear their father’s disappointment, but for very conflicting reasons.”

“Princes?” It doesn’t sound wrong in front of Genji’s name, and a part of her has known, but to hear it is almost surreal. Like he’s part of a fairy tale, and she’s intruding.

“Yes,” she says impatiently, as if teaching a child. “Hanzo and I also discussed trading you to the sea witch for Genji’s magic.”

Angela’s eyes widen for a heartbeat before Amélie continues with indifference, “but there is very little value in you, especially if you don’t have magic.”

Her hands twist at being given up to the sea witch with her withering tentacles but Angeal throws that aside. The word magic still circles heavily in her brain.

“I don’t have magic?” she asks slowly.

The mermaid shrugs at this. “I don’t know, do you?”

At Angela’s confusion, Amélie nearly growls with impatience.

“Have you even tried singing?”

“I—No, but if I’m a mermaid… shouldn’t I have magic?”

Amélie’s purple tail flickers for a moment. Suddenly moving closer, Angela flips her fins once to lean back, but the mermaid still looms over her. The predator like, yellow eyes look over her entire person, like she’s picking what meat she wants to carve out. Angela fights the urge to flee with her alienated body. She can’t drown her now, and she clings to that little protection.

“Mers don’t have stories of humans becoming one of us. It’s always the mermaid leaving the ocean to gain legs,” Amélie speaks, moving her sharp eyes slowly over her pink tail. “We are creatures with magic in our souls. That still lingers if we change forms, it’s simply a part of us. Human don’t have that.”

Angela’s gaze stays locked upon the killer mermaid’s face. The smallest swirl of wonder moves through her center.

“I know one story. Back when ships and pirates were all across the oceans.” She stops herself, gauging Amélie’s expression before continuing. Dad’s words slowly come to her mind as he told it during a heavy rain. “Men believe women brought bad luck, and during storms will throw them overboard in hopes that their ship wouldn’t sink. Those forsaken women held on to their voices even as the ocean took it.”

Angela’s hands loosen, hovering over the space along her waist where her flesh and pink scales meet.

“The ocean gave it back, and let them swim and breathe. The salty water bled with their tears. When the morning came and the storm past, the woman of the sea sang to those who casted her aside. She sang until they couldn’t help themselves, and dove into the water. She let the ocean drown them, as it wouldn’t drown her.”

Her fingertips trace the beginning of her tail for one, terrifying movement. The touch of her own hands through the scales is akin to getting shocked, but she doesn’t falter. Slowly, she presses her entire palm against her tail. She feels it for the first time. It exists as she does.

“Hm.” Angela jerks her gaze back to Amélie. Her purple tail flickers with the smallest amount of content. “That’s a good story.”

Coming back to herself, Angela hunches her shoulders over herself. If she could hide away, she would.

“But—”

“But you are a mermaid. You probably don’t have magic, but you’ve somehow kept Genji alive for this long.” Amélie twists the thought around for a moment.

“Kept him alive?” Angela nearly scoffs. If only she could. “I’ve done nothing for him. All I can do is watch him as he lays dying.”

Her choked up throat stops her from continuing, but the cold mermaid doesn’t address that.

“Usually, mers without their magic are lost in less then a day. You two got away from Moira part of a night and a day ago?” Her cold eyes level upon Angela, pondering the impossible. “Really, Genji should be dead by now.”

The gears in her mind begin whirling at tops speeds. Angela straightens out, flipping her tail once.

“You’ve been in physical contact with him most of the time, I assume?” Amélie asks.

Angela bobs up and down, “Yes. This is the first time I’ve stopped holding him since Moira forced him to make that deal.”

Both mermaids turn their heads to where the brothers converse. Upon the sand, they don’t hold any details besides their black hair and different colored scales.

“I thought at first he was feeding off of your soul, taking it for himself.” Her cooler thoughts doesn’t damper the fast beating of Angela’s heart. The hope flooding her veins is immune to any dams. “Perhaps you’re keeping him alive with your own magic.”

The way he said that she made him feel better, and how he only wanted to hold her, slips to the front of her mind. Even when he sleeps, he seemed content in her arms.

If simply touching him is keeping him from death, she can’t stop that for even a moment.

Angela flickers her tail, and swims back towards him. The mermaid behind her yells at her back fins, but she doesn’t stop. Through the water, she cuts through it like she’s been in it for years. Genji speaking about her tail being powerful was the truth. Maybe she can give up all of her magic to him. They don’t know how humans turned mermaid function exactly.

There’s a chance she can save him.

She comes upon them as swift as the current. Hanzo glowers are her sudden appearance, even as Amélie throws a curse at her backside. There is a more open expression to Genji’s bruised and pale face. His lips part slowly, as if he’s trying to tell the difference between a dream and reality.

She takes Genji’s shoulders. Her palms hold against his skin as her gills flare at her burst of energy. Amélie holds a bothered expression as Hanzo flips away from her and Genji’s reunion.

“Well, hello, Angelfish,” he tries to grin.

“How do you feel?” she asks quickly. His expression shifts at her urgency, uncertain of her tight grip.

“Not worst,” he gives, honest. She feels certain of his, as a moment ago Hanzo was all but supporting his shoulder, while he now manages to sit up in her hold. “What’s going on?”

“We have a course of action to take now,” Hanzo’s superior voice cuts through. Angela turns her face, hardening her expression at his blue scales.

Amélie’s gold eyes almost flash with excitement. There is only grim determination on Hanzo’s brow.

“We have to kill the sea witch, before Genji gets any worse.”

Carefully shifting, Angela holds Genji from behind. A few brush of her fins touch against his scales as her arm crosses over his chest. His hand reaches up to hook around her arm, squeezing once. She supports him. Her lips press against his hair for a heartbeat.

There’s another chance to save him.


	8. Chapter 8

“You’re not going to pay me until I kill Moira?”

The cold glare on Amélie’s face would change any employers mind, but Hanzo is just as indigent. Genji would rather tell them both to swim off, but there is very little assistance elsewhere.

“You have yet to complete any of my commissions,” he states sharply. “Once the sea witch is dead, you will have your black pearl.”

“I will, or else, Hanzo,” her low voice threatens.

“That will be near impossible with the Reaper,” Angela speaks up. Her arms still tense around him, supporting him upon the sand. “How do you plan on doing this?”

“Hanzo still has his spirit dragons,” Genji murmurs to her. Her position keeps her behind him, but he can sense the frown upon her face. Nothing of this is sitting well with her.

“And Amélie will assist me,” Hanzo says firmly, throwing her a hard look. The dark tail mermaid seems somewhat resign at not getting her payment until after the sea witch’s death, but the actual killing doesn’t seem to phase her. How Hanzo went to her in the first place still boils Genji’s blood.

“You don’t understand,” Angela stresses. Her gaze falls over both of them with worry, as if they still don’t actively express interest in her life ending. Genji rests his hand over Angela’s arm. “The Reaper is beyond dangerous. We have no idea what Moira can do now with Genji’s magic.”

“Her power and the Reaper doesn’t matter if we take off her head,” Amélie says. Her hand brushes against the strap containing the dagger around her hips. The Reaper is known to many, but Hanzo and Amélie are probably the only creatures who could get around it.

“That doesn’t seem reliable,” she speaks. Her voice rumbles through her chest against Genji’s shoulder blades. “The only plan you have is to find her, and then kill her by somehow getting around the Reaper.”

“I will use my spirit dragons.” Hanzo looks down upon her. Genji’s warning stare shifts his gaze away from her. “That will distract the Reaper. Amélie will then have the opportunity to get rid of that dread sea witch.”

“How will that give Genji his magic back?” Angela demands.

Genji turns his cheek slightly, fighting fatigue. The corner of her oceans are crinkled with worry.

“Sea witches don’t die with their magic,” he speaks softly. “Any deals that Moira is keeping will be broken, and the effects neutralized.”

He takes a moment to rub his thumb across her skin as he says, “My spirit dragon should return to me.”

For the briefest moment, her face stills at the implication. The bottom of her fins flip subtly. He prays she reads the look in his eyes as she presses her lips together. They can’t speak of the future, not in front of his brother.

“But first, we have to find Moira,” Genji turns back to Hazno and Amélie. The effort to focus on their faces is almost too much of a strain. “You two can handle that, right?”

“You’re going after her now?” Angela looks back to them.

“No,” Hanzo says, terse. “We’ll find her now, but we’ll have to bring Genji close enough to where we plan on killing her. His spirit dragon must get back to him quickly.”

Her arm tightens around him at the thought of the sea witch.

“We will find Moira, brother,” Hanzo’s gaze hardens with something other then animosity and anger. A grim determination, aimed at the dull scales of Genji’s tail. “Do not go anywhere.”

Genji would have answered back with something sarcastic, if he had any energy aside from what little reserves it takes to breathe and keep his eyes open. There are very few moments when Genji has seen Hanzo expression honest concern for him.

He must look as terrible as his empty chest feels.

A parting glance leaves Hanzo’s eyes before he flips his tail. Amélie follows closely behind as they leave the sand bar. Near silently, Genji moves his gills with a heavy breath. Angela’s fingers slowly trace circles into his shoulder.

When his brother and the dark tail mermaid have slipped away in the blue water, Angela leans her cheek on top of his head.

“What will happen if they manage to kill the sea witch?”

Genji sighs. The hollowness within him acts like the center of a black hole. It should be nothing, but its consuming all of his thoughts and ambitions. Something colder is slipping into the space of his ribs where the dragon spirit once slumbered.

The touch of her lips gently kissing his head gives an ounce of strength to his tongue.

“I’m not sure exactly. My spirit dragon will return to me, but it was the dragon who changed you. Not Moira.”

It’s comforting, just a little, that no other magic has touched her aside from his own. Angela’s scales alongside his seem to calm just a bit as well.

“Is there no way we could make another deal?” she asks quietly against his hair. “Going against the Reaper seems too reckless and futile.”

Genji would crack a smile, but he can hardly move his jaw.

“Angelfish, Hanzo is very imperious, but he can control the dragons just like I can.” His reassurance is solid, even in his weak, echoing voice. There is no trust for Hanzo around Angela, but there is trust that he’ll take care of his brother. “Trying to make a deal with her will only end in her favor, not ours. Don’t worry, Moira will be dead before she realizes her head is gone.”

She is not so easily convinced.

“It still is dangerous,” her voice trails off. There is no doubt she’s thinking on his bruised eyes and pale skin.

“But there’s a chance it will turn you back into human,” Genji presses gently.

For a moment, her fingers scrunch up against his skin. As if wanting to curl up on herself.

“Angela?” he asks. Slowly, he turns to find her face hidden along the curve of his neck. Her cheekbone rests on top of his shoulder.

“If it doesn’t, we can be together,” she murmurs against his skin, somber. “Nothing else will keep us apart, not physically.”

Yes. They would still have challenges here in his world, but it wouldn’t be focused on their separation. The ocean is where he’s always existed, but they wouldn’t have to meet on a little secluded beach far from any eyes. Good nights could simply be falling asleep side by side, instead of waiting for the next evening. He could show her how to swim and float and dive in the deep blue. His father would meet his love. All the things she told him she dreamed of and imagined would be at her fingertips.

He wouldn’t have to struggle on the land. She wouldn’t have to struggle in the ocean. They are both already here.

He wants this now. He wants it so terribly that in the space where his heart was, it aches dully. He wants her. He want to see her sing and flip her tail with life and eagerness instead of uncertainty and unwanted terror.

There was only willingness to give up his tail for legs. He was eager, ready to join her. It was never in any of their dreams for her to enter the ocean like him. If somehow, Angela doesn’t change back, Genji won’t have enough magic on his own to give, not without a sea witch. Hanzo would refuse to do anything involving the human, and Genji trusts no one else’s magic.

A harsh breath leaves his mouth. Angela lifts her head, darting her gaze over him with worry. Pushing against the sand, Genji flips his tail with all of his strength. What barely remains pushes him into the ocean blue.

“Genji,” she nearly demands, “What are you doing?”

“Come here,” he strains, twisting to lace his fingers between her hands. Both of their arms hold out between them as Angela flickers her tail in short, small bursts. The faintest current begins to drift them through the blue as Genji flips his tail just a little. Enough to twist them like sea anemones dancing in the water. Slowly, Angela moves with him. A small part of her becomes mesmerized by the subtle ballet of their tails trailing after the other. Pink and Green, like a rainforest flower.

His eyes stay carefully upon hers, enjoying the tight clasp of her fingers between his. The blue of her irises finally look down at herself without sharply turning away or in muted horror. Pink scales dance with his. The blush colored fins twist just as beautiful as his own.

“Genji,” she says, focusing once more. “You should be resting.”

He shakes his head slightly at this, “I’ve been resting well enough. I want to swim with you.”

“Genji,” she exasperates, before her eyes fall back down to both of their tails.

“See?” he gently urges, almost smiling, “Look at how beautiful you are.”

Her gaze slowly lifts. Confliction fills her like the very water they navigate. Slowly, she stops their dance, pulling him closer. He goes without restraint. The vast ocean keeps them as there is inches between their chests. Their fingers still lock, held with reverence. The soft motion of her fins brush against his as the pink ribbons move back and forth.

A flood of weariness rushes through his bones, but he quietly keeps his struggling gills hidden.

“I thought I lost you once…” Her eyes break like the tide hitting land. “I can’t… Even if Hanzo and Amélie manage to kill Moira, there’s no guarantee that we’ll stay together.”

Her shoulders seem to collapse. The sight of her struggle with a sob spurs him to free his hands. He gently rests his palms against her back, just below her shoulder blades to pull her against him. Staying clear of her gills or even accidentally touching scales, he presses his cheek against her hair. Even as his own center pulses with heaviness and his limbs are filled with nothing but cement, he holds her. Her own hands spray across his chest, tucked into his embrace. If only he could physically take the sadness from her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Genji,” she whispers against his throat. “I can’t be like this forever.”

“No,” he breathes. “No, Angela, my love.”

She stirs at his words, but stays hidden against his skin. He holds her all the more.

There are promises waiting on his tongue. Promises that he broke to her before, when they were children. He can’t do that to her again. He can’t promise her everything when he can only give himself. The crushing reality of what they both face is stealing the light in his eyes.

“If you remain a mermaid, it will end up alright,” he swears with his weakening lungs. “If we both end up back where we started, as human and merman, it will end up alright. If somehow, I become human with you, it will end up alright.”

His words feel too weak, too empty. A reflection of himself as he tries to calm her weary heart. Slowly, he presses his lips against her temple.

“We told each other we would live together on land, remember?” he asks, lifting away. He tilts his head down to see where her nose brushes against his collarbone.

“Remember?” he asks again, witnessing her slow rising. Her eyelashes blink slowly in the blue.

“Yes,” she murmurs. “Of course I remember.”

When they both were untouched by weakness and fear.

“I’m still fighting for that future, Angela,” he says. Gently, her hand reaches up to touch his cheek. Doubt and concern keep her brow crinkled, but the smallest bit of hope warms the corner of her eyes. “Aren’t you?”

A heartbeat passes in feeling her gills flutter and her tail flicker slowly, before she nods. Something stronger than any tidal wave or deep fear causes her hand to reach behind her. Slowly, her fingers tug his arm down her backside. Her palm covers the back of his hand, almost lacing her fingertips through his digits.

“Are you sure?” he asks with a wide gaze. She still holds so fragile with herself, but strength presses her lips together. Her eyes close briefly as she nods once.

“Yes,” she breathes. “I want to feel real with you, no matter what happens after Moira is found.”

She’s fighting, fighting with all of her soul. Now, she lets his fingers fall against her scales like raindrops pattering gently upon the surface.

There is still so much awe inside of him. When little else remains, what little breath he holds is lost to the sensation of her body. As if exploring her own tail with him, she guides his hand down her side. The smooth, glimmering scales feel natural against his touch. Pink reflections dances under his palm like seashells lost to the current. He wants to bring her closer, to clutch her entire being against him and never let go. The tight grasp of her hand stops him, holding it against the bend of her tail.

Her brow slowly eases into something of understanding. There is still comprehension, and accepting, but it’s not so sharp and scary. The eyes he’s always looked into like his own home still reflect that feeling.

“Angela, I care about you, not just because you have a tail now. I will always care about you.” He still holds his hand against her scales. “No matter how we end up, you and me will be alright.”

For once, relief touches her features, like a sun breaking through the clouds. A weary, but heart lifting smile finds her lips.

It disappears in seconds as her other hand touches his chest, right over his heart.

“I care about you, too, but… I thought I could heal you with my magic,” her eyes drop to his dull scales. “But you only look like you’re getting worst.”

Genji leans back slightly at this, blinking once. His insides still shift with weak nothings. His tail hardly moves but his focus lands on her words.

“Your magic?” he asks.

Her eyes lift, unsure.

“Amélie told me I could have my own since I’m this,” she says carefully, not wanting to build hope where it cannot thrive. “And that I may be keeping you alive with it.”

Curse that mermaid. Simply because he hasn’t wasted away by now, doesn’t mean she should be telling false things to Angela. Genji has marked his long endurance as his royal blood. Her healing nature would jump for that, but that’s not the magic creatures like them contain.

“Angelfish,” he tries gently, ignoring the sudden lightheadedness attacking his brain, “Mers don’t—they can’t magically heal. I have no doubt you have your own magic, but it’s not something that could…”

Blackness begins filling the edges of his vision. Deep in his chest, his heart shudders.

“Genji,” she asks, suddenly supporting him in the water. There is no will to his body anymore. His head falls to a heavy current, swept away. His hand, once gently cradling her scales, falls away. What would have once roared and clawed and fought now gives easily in.

The last of the blackness plunges him into its depth as her frantic voice echoes his name.

*

_The water is still, perfect for the human, but she stays on the rock. The tide gently laps up against the sides, but she hugs her legs into her chest._

_“Come on! I can’t show you how if you stay out of the water,” he beckons impatiently._

_“I know! I just… I’ve never been this deep in the ocean before,” her voice trails off. Her blonde pigtails shake with her head as she looks at the sea for a heartbeat. A few feet of depth gives Genji plenty of room, but to her, it’s like the middle of the ocean._

_He flips his tail once, and comes to the edge of the rock. Nearly ducking her head into her knees, she peeks at him. He looks up to her, determination soaring through him._

_“Angelfish, I won’t let you drown. I’ll be with you the whole time,” he gesturing to his chest._

_“My name is Angela, Genji!”_

_He shrugs, “Angelfish still sounds better.”_

_Doubt visibly narrows her brow, but she unfolds herself slightly. In a yellow, tutu like, swimsuit, she testes the water with her toe. She suddenly turns on him._

_“Promise you won’t let me go?” she asks, suspicious._

_“Promise!” he swears easily. He still waits, letting his fins flicker slowly as she works up her courage. All out once, gulping deeply and puffing her cheeks out, she slides into the ocean. Genji immediately grabs her arms. Her head only falls under for a second before he pulls her up. Once her tense fingers latch onto his shoulders, she blinks away the water._

_“See?” he grins._

_Quietly, she surveys the lapping water. Eyes that almost mimic the color of the ocean look back to him, nervous, but now, eager._

_“It’s not too scary,” she admits sheepishly, kicking her feet gently against his fin._

_“Just wait until you can swim by yourself!” he holds his smile._

*

Amélie can barely breathe. She swims with her heart accelerating at the fear of death. The slimy essence still clings to her tail, dragging her back through the water to the creature’s large, red eyes. One arm wraps around her rib cage, as if physically holding her broken bones in place. Every movement is creaking pain and a struggle to breathe. The thing crushed her gills and snapped several of her ribs.

Her other hand grasps her dagger, still stained with black ooze that resembles blood. The fins of her tail beat through the water.

Moira controlled the monster like a trained animal, fetching it on her the moment she spied her dark scales. She really shouldn’t have escaped, but the sea witch was caught up in her own visions of what she wished to do with Amélie.

The analyzing, different colored irises still peer over Amélie, judging her use to her. Her insides shudder at what she could have done with the Shimada magic. It was just brimming at her long fingertips. The sense of power and a greater being.

She breaks over the reef where the sandbar lays hidden. Still pushing past the stabbing sensation in her sides, she breathes harshly.

The pink mermaid raises her head from where she sits at the bottom of the ocean. In her scaly lap lays Genji, still as death. A frustrated growl breaks over her teeth at the sight. Just as she reaches them, Angela opens her mouth to speak with worry but her eyes widen on the sight of her.

“Is he dead?” Amélie demands with strain, not wanting to comprehend that she nearly got killed over nothing.

“No,” she breathes out, still looking over her bruised ribs and dark matter covered dagger. “He fell unconscious but his heartbeat is weak. What happened to you?”

“I found Moira,” she hisses. Flickering her tail one last time, she sinks onto the sand. Her tail folds underneath her as she slips the still dirty dagger into its sheath. Now, both her arms support her creaking ribs. “She used the Reaper to come after me, but I cut off one of its tentacles.””

Angela’s breath hitches for a moment before she back down to Genji. Gently laying him entirely onto the sand, she slips away to hover over Amélie in the water. As soon as one of her hands reaches for her torso, Amélie knocks it away.

“Don’t touch me,” she snarls.

“I’m a doctor,” Angela narrows her brow, for once, not holding her timid shell with fear. “Let me see you, I can help.”

“The only thing that can help is your magic.” Amélie still cradles her torso. “Use it to heal me, now.”

“Amélie,” the false mermaid exasperates, “I can’t heal! I don’t even know if—”

She cuts herself off suddenly, as if struck down. Her eyes slowly turn back and look to Genji. Like a corpse that has yet to drift onto shore, he lays still. Even the subtle movements of his gills are hard to pinpoint. It’s a wonder he’s not dead yet.

Angela turns back to her, her jaw tense.

“I’ll try,” she says.

Amélie bares her teeth, but the deep ache moving with every motion of her gills are too sharp. Slowly, she drops her arms away. Deep purple, almost mimicking the color of her scales, decorates just underneath her chest covering. On the sides of her torso, the bruises expand like sea anemones.

Angela lowers her hands with care just above the afflicted areas.

“Breathe in deeply,” she instructs.

Amélie does, watching her work with sharp eyes. Her fingertips gently press against the bruises, as if her goal is to completely break the already cracked ribs. The act almost makes her let out a hiss of pain

“I’m guessing you have two broken ribs on your lower right, and one on your lower left,” she says.

“Where’s your magic, human?” she tenses, earning a sharp look from her.

“Relax, breathe gently,” she instructs with a not unkind tone. “I’m trying to figure out how to use it.”

Her fingertips once again grace her aching skin. A curse spits out from between her teeth as she keeps her gills moving slowly. A few more moments passes with only concentration hardening the pink mermaid.

“If you can’t heal me, Hanzo won’t be able to kill Moira on his own,” the words fall threateningly from her clenched jaw.

“I know!” she says, suddenly charged. “I know, and I already can’t heal Genji when you said I could. Be quiet and let me do this.”

Amélie would snort were it not for her chest being mangled from the inside. As if she’s to blame for this entire mess Angela put them all in.

“I said you could keep him stable, not save him. He needs his magic back,” Amélie says. “You can’t give him that, foolish girl.”

A mix of anger and determination grind into her expression all at once. One flicker of grief overcomes her irises. The obnoxious pink scales of hers twitch with action. As strands of her blonde hair flow through the water, warmth suddenly touches Amélie’s chest. A sharp breath is pulled from her lungs as both mermaids look down. Angela’s left hand glows inwardly with a mystical yellow light. Slowly, as if washing away mud upon ivory, the bruises underneath Amélie’s skin fade away.

Angela jerks her hand back as Amélie breathes in. Pain only radiates from her left side, stabbing into her chest.

“Hurry, the other side,” Amélie demands to Angela’s wide gaze. With hesitance, she swiftly touches the broken rib on her left side with the same hand. Her touch stains the bone, but all at once, her hand glows once more. Once again, the bruise fades away like a bad dream.

When the last of the pain ebbs, Amélie pushes her tail off of the sandbar. Her gills flutter lightly, as if brand new. The pink mermaid remains stunned. Her left hands holds in front of her like an unknown artifact.

So she can heal. That will aid them in getting to Moira, but she can never know of this human turned mer abilities. Least, she decide to take it for herself. Now, they have to guard Genji and this creature.

Only once does Amélie touch her newly healed ribs. Solid and strong. Her breaths are deep and quick. Her gold gaze falls upon Angela, narrowing sharply with the question of her exact magic.

“But what if I can?” Angela speaks softly, but only to herself. Her fingers curl into her palm.

“There is no more time for you to experiment.” Amélie cuts her tail sharply through the water. “When Hanzo returns, we go and kill the sea witch.”


	9. Chapter 9

Her steady hands have met failure. There were patients that simply had too much blood in their chest cavity, or too little strength to let their bodies recover. Cancer that was too nervous and reproductive. Some critical injuries were beyond help, even her own, but she still tried.

The tips of her fingers rest over his sternum. Genji’s heartbeat is barely an echo against her skin. Her left hand has already performed a magical feat, there is only frustration as to why it doesn’t do that now.  

“Enough of that,” Amélie hisses. She slowly flips her tail through the water, circling a few feet from them. “You are wasting your time and focus.”

Angela ignores her, still willing her magic to flow through her hand and into him. She is not so ignorant as to believe she can heal him in the traditional sense. No. Genji’s magic, his spirit dragon, is gone. The only thing she’s attempting is to give some of that up to him, to stall for some more time.

He gave it up for her. Why can’t she for him? Anger and grief threaten to overwhelm her chest at the question, but she keeps her palm firmly over his chest. His unconscious state already keeps her heart locked in a vice. Every reassurance of his weakly, fluttering gills is all that she can cling to.

Amélie asked if he was dead. Now, draped across her tail so she can hold him, he almost is. There is no more shine to his scales, and his fins don’t move. His skin is translucent and terribly shaded with sickness. The bruises around his eyes act as if to rot him away entirely. Slow, shallow breathing moves his chest as she leans over him.

This is not his end. The thought is an infectious, cruel disease edging around her soul. Her hand doesn’t tremble over his heart, but her scales do. A thick emotion overcomes her throat. She swallows against it.

Sepia irises, beautifully warm and lively, hold to the inside of her skull. It keeps her steady.

“Genji.” Both mermaids turn to find Hanzo swimming swiftly to where Angela holds Genji in her lap. The usual hard and sharp angles to his face are wide and stretched with stark concern. It slips into her chest oddly. No, there’s no guessing in how he feels about her, but Hanzo truly loves his brother. He’s just as afraid to love him as she is.

“He’s still alive,” Angela says quickly. Her other hand touches through Genji’s black hair for a moment. The little act giving her the smallest amount of comfort. “He fell unconscious a little while after you two left.”

Hanzo breathes out heavily, closing his eyes for a moment. The blue scales upon his tail still at this. In his moment of relief, Amélie flickers her tail to Angela. Lowering her sharp teeth beside her hair, the mermaid whispers a warning into her ear.

“Don’t tell him about your magic.”

Amélie calmly moves away, approaching Hanzo as Angela’s narrowed brow stays upon her back fin. The answer as to why the killer mermaid wishes to keep Hanzo ignorant of her ability is far from her reach. Couldn’t she help in the fight against Moira and the Reaper? If what Genji told her before he fell unconscious was correct, shouldn’t Hanzo know that she can do what no other mermaid can?

Still, Angela presses her lips tightly together in question. There is very little trust for the two mers, but Angela has just a little less for Hanzo. Amélie must have her reasons, unless its a self-driven one.

Her arms tighten around Genji, wishing for him to open his eyes.

“I’ve located Moira,” Amélie says, “She was just over the kelp forest on the far, north end of the coast the last time I saw her. The Reaper is with her.”

“Of course. We must go quickly. My brother won’t survive without his spirit dragon, ” Hanzo speaks, before sharply looking around to Angela. “but first, I must speak to her alone.”

Amélie narrows her brow at Hanzo, “We don’t have time for you to scare his love off.”

“It will take less than a minute,” he drops his voice low. The dark tail mermaid only flicks her long ponytail behind her head before swimming past Hanzo. Watching with uncertainty, Angela tenses as Hanzo flips his tail closer. From her place upon the sand, the merman floats above her in a threatening loom.

“Hanzo, we need to hurry—” he cuts her off with a firm voice.

“When all of this over, and you are once again human, and my brother is reunited with his spirit dragon, you must never see him again.” His eyes are like stones. There is no wavering, or giving. A cold, holy wraith holds him in this. “When he returns you to land, you must leave and never return to the water, or him.”

The blue tail merman sharply regards her.

“Genji is spiteful and rebellious. He doesn’t heed our father’s warnings about humans. We have done everything to protect him from you, but he refuses to leave you be. We cannot do any more, but you must put an end to this. Leave him alone. You have hurt him enough. You have drove him to forsake his spirit dragon and act as if you could ever be one of our kind. You must leave Genji alone, least he die.”

Angela feels the entirely earth crawl into her chest. It squeezes her lungs and crushes her heart. Her ribs creak as the bones of her spine groan. Everything threatens her, threatens them. Here he lays dying her lap, because they wanted to love each other.

How can she let him fight for her all alone?

Not again. She’s already lost him so many times before. Not again.

“If you truly love my brother, you will leave him,” Hanzo speaks with finality.

Angela lifts her gaze slowly. Her person solidifies, like an island among the sea. For the first time, she doesn’t cower or hunch over. She straightens, and faces him with bold eyes.

“I spent nearly twenty years believing Genji was simply a broken fragment of a dream I had when I was a child. That somehow, I learned how to swim in the ocean all alone.” Angela lets the oxygen she speaks with move through her heart. “After we found each other again, both grown and no longer ignorant of the world, we fell in love.”

Hanzo’s brow narrows at her declaration, but there is nothing stopping her pledge.

“Genji swore he would never leave me, but I have my own promise to keep to him.” Her chin lifts as the bottom of the ocean swirls in her center, and her mouth moves with its tremors. “I lost him once, but never again.”

Her fingers still feel his skin, and the weight of his person upon her tail. The in and out motion of his gills still settle her terrified heart.

“I have no doubt that he would declare the same to you, Hanzo.”

Silent displeasure molds his eyes, but he only jerks his chin once.

“We must go.” is all he says.

He flips closer, reaching for his brother when Angela holds up her hand.

“I’ll carry him.” she says, firm.

His sharp eyes pierce through her for only a second before saying, “Do not slow us down.”

Quietly, Angela hooks her hands onto Genji’s arms again. Lifting off of the sand, she shifts to drag him with her back facing the ocean floor. His head falls to the side as she begins flipping her pink fins, swimming them both along.

Hanzo calls for Amélie, who only gives Angela and Genji’s unconscious form a glance before swimming to the north. Angela swims behind their trail, keeping pace with her strong tail and set heart.

*

As they travel north, Amélie notes certain coral reefs and sandbars she remembers passing. It was mostly while she was struggling to keep her broken ribs from stabbing her internal organs but it still leads them to Moira. The sea witch and her pet nearly took her life. She will repay that action in kind, but her dagger will cut through more than just one tendril on that monster.

After swimming for some time, Amélie falls back from Hanzo’s lead, telling him she’ll converse with Angela for a moment. He hardly reacts, only tells her to not slow them down. The fake mermaid doesn’t notice her until she moves right beside her. She still flickers her tail and drags Genji with careful strength. Amélie lowers her gaze to her focused expression, before looking once more to the end of Hanzo’s fin.

“Don’t let Moira know of your magic either,” she speaks in a hush. This earns Angela’s furrowed brow as they continue to swim.  

“Why?” she asks, slightly winded. The limp body of her love falls against her, his tail dead weight as she struggles for them both.

“We cannot allow Moira to take it, least she have the Reaper, Genji’s dragon and your magic all at once.” Amélie’s cold eyes move sharply over her with warning. “She will be even harder to kill then.”

A crease only further dents the space between her eyebrows. Slowing just a little to check Genji’s heartbeat, Angela quickly flips her tail to catch back up to Amélie’s steady pace.

“Hanzo is foolish enough to trade you to the sea witch in exchange for his brother’s life,” Amélie speaks before Angela can ask. “Don’t do anything foolish yourself. It won’t be worth it.”

The pink mermaid flickers her fins once in burning motivation. Her fingers tighten around his arms.

“I won’t let him die,” she speaks.

Amélie cuts her fin through the water, nearly knocking into hers.

“Don’t do anything foolish,” she warns in cold tones. “I won’t let you make that murderous sea witch unstoppable.”

At that, she flips her tail to jet ahead. Back at Hanzo’s side, Amélie points him a little to the right. The kelp forest is just ahead. As they pass over a light sandy floor, the dark, reaching arms of aquatic plants create a haunting field just before them.

Amélie and Hanzo stop at the edge of the kelp upon the bottom of the sea. The kelp reaches nearly one hundred feet in the darker waters, like hands begging for the surface’s light. Angela still carries Genji, letting his head fall against her chest as they all look to the far end.

“There’s Moira,” Amélie looks to where the dark waters seem to thrive, “and the Reaper.”

Hanzo turns to the fake mermaid. “Stay hidden in the kelp with him. We will make this end quickly.”

Angela nods solemnly, clutching Genji close before saying, “Be careful.”

*

_Her arms stroke through the water effortlessly. Smoothly kicking her legs, she pushes herself out farther. The blue holds her, like the front porch after a long day. The salt taints her skin and softens her hair like seaweed._

_“You’re starting to act like an angelfish,” Genji’s voice surfaces as he does, water dripping over his eyelashes and out of his hair. Shaking his head to clear this, he grins as she comes to float gently in the sea._

_“Maybe I am,” she says proudly, tilting her chin high. There is a breathlessness to her tones. As much as they both know, she’s not like him. Her legs are just that and his fins make him a part of this water._

_Shifting slowly, she moves onto her back to gently float. Reflectively, Genji reaches out to support her back underneath the surface. The habit sprang out of the thousand of times he coax her into getting use to the water. Panic would always overwhelm her chest as the water neared the corners of her mouth, but Genji never let go of her. After two weeks, she finally started kicking and stroking her arms without his constant support._

_Now, they both cut through the waves. He’s much faster then her, but she still tries to keep up._

_“Are you getting tired?” he asks, eyeing her as she faces the orange sky._

_She bites her lip as her hands and feet pad softly, even though he holds her._

_“A little,” she confesses, sheepish._

_Silently, he flickers his tail, stirring the water as he gently pushes her back to shore. Still upon her backside, Angela enjoys the slow motion._

_“I told you I wouldn’t let you drown,” he says, still flickering his tail gently._

_Angela giggles, “I know! That’s why I like swimming with you.”_

_The evenings are always theirs. From when the sun burns to where the water cools gradually against her skin, they play. The little merman is her friend. Her only play mate. Sometimes, it frustrates Angela to the point of crying when her mom and dad mistake Genji for imaginary. He’s as real as this ocean. As real as her new ability to swim the deeper parts of the water without worry._

_But she only likes to swim out this deep with him._

_He pushes her onto the shore like a piece of a shipwreck, which causes more laughter in Angela’s chest. In the shallows and against the sand, Genji flips his green tail uncomfortable._

_“Can we swim again tomorrow?” Angela asks, eager._

_“Of course, Angelfish!” Genji beams, splashing his tail down. “But I have to go now.”_

_“Okay,” she says, disappointed but the setting sun always sends Genji back home, deeper into the sea then she could ever go._

_Waving with her sand and sea foam covered hand, Angela says, “Bye!”_

_He waves back, grinning as he pushes himself back into the tide. Genji flips out back to the sea, shaking the sand free from his fins. Angela slips the towel around her shoulders as she steps into the treeline._

_Genji returns to his group of mers, but they are all gathered, as if to migrate up north. There is anger and resolution in his father’s eyes. He will not allow his son to be hurt by the humans of the land, despite his disobedience._

_Genji can’t argue. He can’t stop them from taking him away. His father keeps him at his side, far from the land and the human waiting for him to return._

_His heart has never felt such betrayal, along with sorrow. He begs for one more moment, for a chance to at least say goodbye. He is forbidden. His father takes him away, only with the protection of his person in mind._

_A whispered name, one that is not really her own, falls from his lips towards the land. As if the waves would carry it back to her with his sorrow._

_Angela waits on the beach. The water is empty without his green scales, and she doesn’t want to swim without him. The sun moves on, but Angela stays, anxiously scanning the water for her friend. The sun falls down. She doesn’t move from the sand._

_She stays quiet when the frantic calls of her parents echo in the darkness. Tears begin falling when her father scoops her up, and her mother touches her hair. Her wails and screams for Genji are left behind as she’s carried away, forbidden from returning there again._

_But she does return. Once. She slips away from the watchful eyes of her parents after a few weeks of being kept from their little beach. She wades in the water, but doesn’t find him. When she calls out, there is only the ocean lapping against the rocks._

_She returns to the sand, trying to stop herself from crying._

_The little merman is gone._


	10. Chapter 10

The animosity Angela felt when entering Moira’s cave and finding the black abyss just underneath her suddenly wells up inside her now. Hanzo and Amélie are just as determined to confront the sea witch as Genji was. The strengths of their persons are undeniable, but somehow, Moira appears above their power, untouchable. Like a little minnow attempting to sink a ship.

Acid like terror eats away at her insides. She prays that her and Genji’s outcome with Moira will not be the same for his brother and the killer mermaid. Both are confident as they begin to swim just above the kelp forest. Their tails cut through the water with strong purpose. They converse for a moment, viewing Moira alongside her monster before Amélie suddenly drops into the field of kelp. In seconds, she disappears from Angela’s gaze into the thick green stands. Hanzo continues forward, his blue fins flickering rapidly.

Silently brushing past the watery plants, Angela manages to lower Genji’s unconscious form onto the ocean floor underneath Moira. As much as her fins tense at the thought of him being near her, he must be close when she is defeated. The spirit dragon needs to return to him as quickly as possible. Through the thick vines, the water because dark and bleak. Were it not for his faint heartbeat holding all of her fear, it would be unsettling. Stretching her tail out, she drapes him over her scaley lap. His cheek falls to one side. The dark bruises staining his once lively face still haunts her vision. A becoming corpse.

Hidden in the ocean’s forest, she peers upwards through the kelp. Her horizontal vision is entirely obscured by the kelp but she can still catch glimpses of Hanzo’s blue tail above. A beat in her heart rate skips as he calls out. Moira’s tentacles twist through the water, facing him with interest. It’s as if she accidentally found gold buried in the sand.

“Moira,” he demands with the voice of a king speaking to a peasant. “Give up my brother’s magic, or you will be killed.”

Her dichromatic irises sweep the area, even down to the kelp forest. Angela’s hands grip Genji tightly, but she doesn’t find them in the darker waters.

“I’m surprised your brother is still alive,” she speaks evenly. The swirling mass of tentacles and three, red eyes are just behind her, like a wall of black. “I can only guess that it’s his Shimada blood that has kept him going so far. He must be close by, with his little human, no doubt.”

She surveys Hanzo’s battled ready body once, “Where is your father?”

“I alone will be dealing with you,” he almost snarls, impatient. “Give up Genji’s dragon, and I’ll let you live.”

Still only intrigued by Hanzo, Moira puts one finger to her cheek, thoughtful.

“You’ll be sorely disappointed to find that your dragons will not kill my pet. However, your spiritual monsters will be worth more than Genji’s one. Perhaps we could make a deal?”

Hanzo’s person changes. Not physically, but the countenance shifts into something that has always been spoken of about mermaids. From the alluring, singing voice to the enchanting scales they possessed, it all seemed to rise up into a deep blue glow within his gaze. Suddenly, Genji’s own, green barring eyes come to mind when Moira had her entirely restrained. Wrath is purposefully set into power.

“You are done making deals, witch.”

Moira’s gaze narrows at this, before she flicks her hand forward. The Reaper’s convulsing and grasping mass of tentacles move around it’s master. The monster plows through the ocean right to the merman, reaching for him with its slimy appendages.

Angela’s gills hitch, but in that moment, she tastes heavy salt on her tongue. The aura of deep blue light shifts to life. Two, gaping maws form. Large, fearsome beasts take shape before Hanzo as the kraken like creature still charges for him. Finned, slippery, serpentine bodies appear in the water surrounding Hanzo. Two, deep blue, sea dragons. Both of their masses rival the Reaper’s, defending their master.

For once, Angela senses a warm victory over the black horizon.

The Reaper stalls as the sea dragons come upon it. Their jaws are opened wide as their teeth slash it’s body. Uselessly, the Reaper’s tentacles reach and grasp at the beings, but only burnt blood seems to come out of it as the creature lets out an unholy wail. One sea dragon circles behind the Reaper, while the other remains defensively in front of Hanzo. The merman’s eyes still burn with the same light as the beings, wordlessly obey him.

Moira watches this as if she was forced to swallow a sour tasting pill. Taunt lines pull at her eyelids as her dark, lower half twists with muted agitation.

So subtly that Angela almost doesn’t see her, Amélie rises from the kelp behind the monsters fighting and behind Moira’s backside. Her dagger holds in her hand as her purple tail flickers quickly. The same, cold edge to her gold irises tells Angela what will happen next. With the Reaper distracted, and the back of Moira’s neck entirely exposed, Amélie jets forward with her weapon held high.

Angela wishes to look away, but her hands only tighten around Genji.

The Reaper turns away for one second from the two dragons assaulting it’s twitching mass to let out another deep, wail. Amélie reaches the sea witch, and swipes her blade.

The sea witch twists in the water, catching Amélie’s wrist before the blade finds flesh. The mermaid swipes at her with her other hand, reaching for her throat but Moira’s tentacles quickly wrap around her person. A scream holds in Angela’s throat, but is never released. Pinning Amélie’s arm to her side, Angela can hear a snarl of frustration leaving her mouth as Moira easily drags her closer. Disabling her grip on the knife, another black tentacle traps Amélie entirely at her whim. With only a lingering glance, Moira lets the dagger sink into the kelp forest.

Attempting to struggle with her tail only leads to more tentacles ensnaring her person. Amélie jerks her chin high, baring her teeth at the sea witch. A shout comes from Hanzo, but his attention immediately returns to the Reaper. The three, red eye monster attacks with vigor now.

“You are proving to be troublesome.” Moira speaks, as if rebuking a child. “Interesting, I thought my pet inflict harm upon you.”

Amélie thrashes once, her purple scales straining against Moira’s grasp, but she only grabs her jaw. It’s done so tightly, that Angela wonders if her sharp nails are cutting into Amélie’s face.

“I have yet to truly experiment with my new found magic,” Moira muses, causing Angela’s body to turn cold.

“I’ll swim through your blood,” Amélie speaks in a low threat, but even that only causes Moira to raise one sharp eyebrow.

An incoherent word falls from the sea witch’s mouth before a purple, ink like substances erupts from her palm. This ink swarms upon the mermaid in the water. She turns her head away, still struggling to escape but all to quickly it encases her. The last glimpse Angela has of Amélie is that of wide, fearing eyes.

Angela’s heartbeat stops as the ink flaring around Amélie shifts into a larger mass. Slowly, Moira untangles her lower half from her as the ink grows. A slow diffusing of the purple ink slowly reveals the large, gray mass of Moira’s newest ‘pet’.

Angela’s hands clutch at Genji. Unconsciously, she leans over him as if to shield his body from what the sea witch has made of Amélie. At first, the sheer horror of the sea monster stalls Angela from understanding what exactly it is, but it slowly comes together as a mixture of several, grotesque things.

An oblong, gray shell, with a curving tail, like that of a lobster, takes the center mass. Along both sides, the creatures operates long, needle like legs that jump through the water as way of swimming. The head falls flatly into a gray, shell covering, containing a dozen, black, soulless eyes that all twitch into different directions. It sees all, but finally focuses on one target.

Moira speaks another enchanted word, pointing to Hanzo as he stares in hard disbelief at what was once a beautiful mermaid. The spidery, lobster like creature moves at the command of its master, targeting Hanzo.

Angela longs to scream, to cry out to stop this, to take it all back, but the two ‘pets’ of Moira take upon Hanzo’s dragons. The giant serpents are now forced to separate, and lose their advantage. Hanzo’s blue grow never falters, but he tenses his jaw at the new challenge.

The Reaper is thrashing, all of its tentacles attempting to find a weak point where the sea dragon doesn’t defend its master. As the spidery, lobster like creature stabs repeatedly at the other dragon, it wails in a strange, clicking noise. Both monsters are seeking for a chance to strike at the other merman.

Angela tears her horrified gaze away to look to Moira. Never before could she have turned another person into a monster without the aid of a deal, but she did it on a whim. All with Genji’s magic. Now, it’s a battle to see if Hanzo can retreat with his life, or without Moira somehow killing him, or doing something worst.

Her heart burns. It trembles in the flames and cries out in the ashes. That is all that is left. The charcoal remains of all the mers she has come to known. Even Genji is inches away from being a lifeless coal.

A sob longs to rip out of her throat, but it stops at the spidery lobster creature diving for Hanzo. The terrifying, gray abomination stabs one, long needle leg at Hanzo, which he dodges, but the dragon quickly opens its maw to devour the leg. A clicking wail rises as the monster loses its appendage. The other dragon turns to strike at its shelled backside, having the opportunity as the Reaper pulls away, but the dragon only leaves scorching like marks against what was once Amélie.

The twisting sea dragons cut through the water as the Reaper lunges, but both dragons defend against its attack. Quickly, before Angela can even blink, the spidery lobster stabs two legs at Hanzo. He shouts as it crosses its needle legs to trap him like a piece of food between chopsticks, but doesn’t move to kill him.

The blue glow of his person fades, and the sea dragons with it. The water comes to a dead still as both monsters surround Hanzo. Whatever the sea monster is doing, perhaps near crushing him, Hanzo struggles against. His blue tail flips wildly as he fights, but it is useless.

Moira shifts slightly, pleased. Her mouth opens but the many eyes of the terrifying creature cut through the kelp to land upon Angela’s terrified expression. One, clicking noise falls from its hidden mouth.

Glancing down in mild surprised, like finding an unexpected gift, Moira sinks through the water. At the very tops of the kelp, she views Angela with morbid curiosity. Her stomach twists at the certain doom just above her and Genji.

“A human turned mermaid. Genji’s magic really is that powerfully,” she speaks almost thoughtfully to herself. Angela leans over Genji, hoping to hide his tail from the sea witch’s view despite it being impossible now.

Turning her red hair through the water, Moira looks back to Hanzo.

“Perhaps now you are more willing to make a deal, Hanzo?” she asks to his enraged face. He still struggles against the bars of the spidery lobster’s cage.

“You will never touch another Shimada’s magic,” he swears, near breathless.

She treats his statement like a nuisance.

“We’ll see that change when I find your clan,” she says. “Sojiro’s magic is something else entirely, no?”

Hanzo shouts in rage, but it is as if he never spoke. One of her tentacle moves through the air like a hand gesturing about unspoken thoughts. As if it the two, deep blue sea dragons are none of her concern as she focuses back on Angela’s pink tail.

“There is still protection over you,” she says, clutching Angela’s heart in the vice. “I am intrigued with your strange circumstance, a human turned mermaid… but I’m curious. Genji is already dead. How great is that protection now?”

Her brow hardens into something dangerous. A storm coming upon a small fishing boat. Her hand extends as the same emerald glow that once filled Genji’s gaze now touches Moira’s. The light doesn’t belong in her red and blue irises. An unknown word leaves her lips as this green light manifests into a gaping jaw. Genji’s dragon appears, cutting through the water. It’s fierce gaze glowers upon her as it rushes to where she holds Genji upon the ocean floor.  

Resignation touches through Angela as if she is once again sinking into the abyss, and the fearsome sea dragon is swallowing her up. There is no salvation, or protection this time. There is no hope of Genji coming out alive, or of her cheating what once made her weak. Her tail is worthless in keeping Genji’s own dragon from killing him. If it doesn’t kill her first.

Angela bows her head over his closed eyes, and touches his face. Sorrow takes what remains of her mangled chest. Emotion chokes her throat as she clutches at her love. The roar of the untethered beast echoes through the water overhead. Softly, she brushes her fingers through his hair, perhaps for the last time.

*

_He smiles as he presents the seashell. A twisted, conch shape with soft pink touching the ends. Delighted, Angela takes it with her pruny fingertips, before turning it over in her hands._

_“I didn’t see this one when you helped me reach the bottom,” she says, running one finger down the tucked over edge._

_“I grabbed it just as you went up for air,” he flips his fin, proud of his little endeavor. “I wanted to surprise you.”_

_The rock is her seat as her feet dip into the ocean. A small, but overjoyed smile touches Angela’s lips. She looks up to his light brown gaze, which still shines brightly at his little gift. Holding himself up with his arms propped on the rock, he watches for a moment._

_“Angelfish?” he asks at her staring, before she wraps his arms around his neck like a vice. Squeezing him close, her cheek presses against the few water drops still resting on his shoulder. One hand reaches up to pat her arm._

_“Thank you, Genji,” she says before pulling away. She once again takes the seashell she had dropped into her lap. This summer is all too perfect, mostly because the ocean isn’t so scary and Genji is her best friend. The pretty seashell is just another happy memory._

_“Of course,” he beams. His boyish cheeks are round with his grin. Her own are starting to hurt from smiling back so much._

_She doesn’t want this end. She doesn’t want to go back home and sleep and wait for the evening where Genji will once again swim with her. She wants to play in the blue vastness forever. The desire to see Genji, even at the thought of leaving now, is strong enough to make her tense her fingers over the shell._

_There is very little else that makes her so happy._

_The time for them to depart is drawing near, but her limbs are heavy from all their swimming today. Still staring down at the seashell, Angela grasps for anything to drag this on just a little longer._

_“You keep calling me Angelfish,” she says, hoping to make it sound like a mild complaint but it comes out quieter._

_Genji tilts his head at this, his tail stilling just underneath the surface._

_“I told you, it’s better than Angela,” he states. “Besides, you like to call me fishboy.”_

_“Not all the time,” she counters, before pausing._

_“Is that what my name would be if I were a mermaid?_

_His gaze turns thoughtful as he considers this. Angela looks at him from underneath her dripping bangs._

_“I would call you that no matter what, but I don’t think your name would change,” he thinks for a moment more, “Would my name change if I were a human?”_

_Angela snorts at the thought, earning Genji’s mildly insulted expression._

_“I would still call you fishboy,” she giggles._

_His tail flips, nearly splashing her with slight annoyance. “I would never become human anyways. The ocean is better than any land.”_

_“You told me the other day you would love to visit a human ice cream shop just to eat all of the ice cream.”_

_Genji fumbles for a moment, “That’s different.”_

_“No, it’s not!” Angela nearly cries out._

_“Yes, it is!” he insists._

_“You’re being silly,” Angela pouts._

_“Hey, would you become a mermaid just to swim and find seashells?” he tries._

_Angela suddenly becomes quiet. At this, Genji stills his scales at her conflicted expression._

_“I’d like to,” she says quietly. “I love swimming.”_

_It’s just her fantasies and daydreams of swimming with Genji indefinitely underneath the surface. Genji told her stories of mermaids turning into humans just to walk on land. He’s told her before that she’d look better as a mermaid too, although, that was mostly when she was calling him fishboy. This talk is just pretend though, another game of make believe._

_The confoundment causing Genji’s brow to narrow still resonates within her. Then slowly, he grins. The end of his translucent, green fin brushes against the rock she resides on._

_“You would make an awesome mermaid. You’re already an angelfish, with the way you swim as a human.”_

_Angela shakes her head but laughs. There is no changing his mind._

_“You really are being silly,” she says as she squeezes the seashell between her hands._

_“No, I’m just saying what would be better,” he speaks with mirth in an arrogant, convinced tone but Angela still smiles._

_“But,” he adds, looking to the pink conch shell for a moment, “I don’t care, so long as we get to still swim together.”_

_“Me too,” she nods._

_They linger on the rock, even though the sun is starting to fall into a red evening. They both don’t want to go, and that comforts her in the slightest. The seashell contains the smallest essence of that moment as she cradles it in her palms. The walk home is less lonely because of his gift._

*

She whispers his name, afraid. What was once his green dragon now charges towards them through the water. Her one arm moves to cradle his head, while her right palm touches over his heart.

It will only be sleep for him. Even though protection is supposedly guarding her person, she wishes against it. Among the twisting kelp, and dark waters, rest a place longing for more, for better. He can’t die here, not near the sun or pretty seashells. Her arms tighten as her tail supports his unconscious form.

They both have struggled and fought and longed for each other. Years have kept them apart, and wishes for company were found only on the little beach. She refuses to let Moira take only him. She won’t be left alone again. Death will not part them.

If there is no other way, she will not live another moment without him.

“Genji.” Her fingers curl limply over his weak beating heart.

After all they’ve endured, when they’ve both lost each other over and over again, she pleads to something internally. A will to allow her magic to flow into him and give him his power back and rip it away from the sea witch.

Angela knows her magic is not of bringing back what is lost. She can only heal what is broken, but she still pleads. She begs against all logic and wrongs and reality.  

Her lips part in a silent sob as the sea dragon comes closer. Only yards away, it dives directly upon them, as if to swallow them both whole.

From this despair, her desperate need and want, a jolting warmth expands across her palm. Angela blinks once. Her right hand cackles with a strange, inward light of electric blue. A new, burning hope fills her chest, but with an unknown future. The blue glow of her hand touches over Genji’s heart. All at once, he twitches, before his eyes open with a startling awakeness. The dull glimmer to his tail suddenly brightens to life as he flickers his fin. The bruises surrounding his eyes lighten into healthier skin. Her heart jumps to her throat as she clutches him desperately.

“Angela?” Genji says, easing his eyelids open, “What—”

His eyes widen as green light touches over them. In an instant, Genji flips his tail to jet upwards. Angela’s fins keeps with his movements, as if sharing his same thoughts. Her hand never falls from his chest as it still glows blue. A magnetic pulls keep her palm over his heart.

Genji and Angela meet the sea dragon head on. He shouts, commanding the spiritual creature while her touch keeps them both afloat. His arms move with direction as their tails brush against the other’s in the kelp. The gaping maw of the dragon never shuts, but it angles its charge around them at Genji’s order. It turns it’s attack upwards to the sea witch.

Moira’s face is a frozen mask of astonishment. One blue and red iris twitch in their wide gaze as the dragon slithers towards her.

“That can’t be,” she manages to speak, suddenly twisting her tentacles to swim away. Genji’s dragon is much faster. The ocean is its own embodiment as it bares upwards upon the sea witch. Angela can’t help but think of a shark attacking an unaware seal.

Moira speaks a foreign word in desperation. The two sea monsters leave Hanzo without hesitation and jet to their master, but they are too late. Even her pets can’t protect her now.

The dragon’s maw comes down upon the sea witch, burning with brilliant green light. At this, Angela ducks her head, and presses her forehead against Genji’s chest. There is already too much that will linger in her nightmares, she doesn’t need to witness the death of Moira.

Several terrifying heartbeats pass before Genji’s hands touch her shoulders. Slowly, she lifts his gaze to his bright, open eyes. There is still a weakness lurking around his eyelids, but he looks back at her, alive, and aware. The blue glow coming from her hand still seeps into his chest, which she never moves.

“Genji,” she nearly sobs, relieved.

“Angela,” he breathes, bewildered and awed all at once.

“How?” she asks, still reeling, “How did you take your dragon back?”

He shakes his head, just as stunned. He looks down to her blue glowing hand, almost alien were it not for more disturbing events just behind them. One of his hands covers hers tenderly, amazed.

“Your magic! It’s like you gave me your magic, but didn’t… I’ve never felt so empowered.”

Her own soul moves with his as he says, “Somehow, you gave me the strength to take back my dragon.”

The strong beating of his heart still comforts her fingertips. Angela wants nothing more then to take him entirely in her arms, but her gills still flutter. The steady motion of his lungs are just as relieving, but a distant fade still circles around his person. Not a permanent fix, but enough to help him take back his dragon, and stop the sea witch.

“Is she dead?” Angela asks, only looking up enough to hold his gaze. In the middle of the winding kelp forest, he holds like a beacon.

He tilts his head back. A grim expression touches his face, but there is no pity to be found.

“She is now,” he says. When the last word leaves his lips, Angela looks up. His dragon is only just beginning to circle back around, but must travel through a mess of red water and a severed body.

It ends as quickly as it began.

A soft sound echoes, like a pulse moving through the water. A rippling ring moves outwards from the remains of Moira, tinged with purple and yellow. Genji tenses his arms around her when the ring reaches them, but it passes harmlessly through their bodies.

The ring reaches out to the last reminders of the sea witch. The monsters twitch and let out one last wail when the purple and yellow ring touches them. All at once, yellow and purple ink erupts around the creatures. The large clouds slowly shriek in size, until they wash away entirely.

Amélie and a dark skin merman remain, with a tail of dark patterning browns and blacks. Dazed and limp, but no longer plagued by Moira. Quickly, Hanzo cuts through the water to reach Amélie’s nearly unconscious form.

The green beast moves towards them once more, but a different finality moves through its spirit. It’s great maw is closed, and only seeks to return to Genji.

Emotions tumble through her center, like a whirlpool of her heart and lungs. It’s as if she’s too heavy and light all at once. Genji’s hands suddenly shift her, moving her higher as he falls below her. Both of their tails stretch horizontally while Angela looks down at him with confusion. She only shifts to keep her hand firmly over his heart.

“My dragon changed you… it will change you back,” he says, firm, but the tiniest crinkles tug at the corner of his mouth.

Angela breathes in, uncertain of everything, even now that the sea witch is dead. They can be together, alive and well in the deep blue. It is only her forcing them apart this time, leaving him behind in the sea.

“Genji, no,” she says, “I can… We can be together. You and me.”

She is entirely willing and ready when she says, “I give all of me, to you.”

He smiles, something held together from the day they last saw each other as children. She longs to reach out and touch it. In a vain hope that it will brighten into something honestly happy.

“We will be together,” Genji says, sure, “When I become human… When I give all of me, to you.”

He understands her heart. With her hand still resting against his chest, she smiles too.

“I thought I lost you,” her trembling lips say. Only the corners of her upturned mouth, and his certainty, hold her together.

“You can’t lose me again, Angelfish.”

His voice quietens her storming soul.

She lifts her hand away from his chest. In that moment, the dragon takes them both, moving through her first.

There is warmth, and the smell of the sea foam. A few memories of the rocks and shallows touch her mind as she feels his presence. A bright emerald amidst all of the ocean. The will and strength to have each other forever keeps in their souls. Magic, both yellow and green, flare out in the moment the dragon touches them both.

She and he.

_You and me._

The dragon judges her, turning over her soul before leaving her once more with its gift. When Angela blinks, the last of the green light gleams in Genji’s irises before he inhales deeply. What was once decay, blooms as a strong soul. The bruises are mere memories. His tail flickers as strongly as ever with bright, emerald scales. He holds her with renewed strength.

He is whole.

The water becomes too heavy and unfriendly at once. Angela closes her mouth against the sea, and kicks her two legs which brush against the kelp. What was once pink and glimmering, returns to what was. Her hand no longer glows blue.

Swiftly, Genji wraps his arms under hers, and flips his tail. Rising through the kelp, her lungs burn as gills no longer decorate the sides of her chest. It’s almost strange to feel two, separate appendages below her waist. He swims through the water like one of its waves, no longer limp and struggling. A bright joy fills her heart at his strong movements and quick fins.

Angela only gets one glimpse of Amélie, who now swishes her purple tail slowly as Hanzo holds her. When the burning of her lungs almost becomes too much, they break through the surface. Genji’s arms fall to her waist as she sputters and coughs, inhaling the dry, delicious air. When her heartbeat settles, and her lungs stop heaving, she falls against his shoulder.

“Angelfish, are you okay?” he asks. His green tail flickers to keep them above the surface. A soft brush of his scales touch her human legs. As if they are once again back in the shallows along their hidden beach.

“Yes,” she gasps. The fingers of her hand clutch his black hair tightly. “Yes. Are you?”

The water laps gently at their shoulders. His hands loosen against her hips in a moment of relief before tightening once more. She only wants to cling to him, and never let him fall out of her sights. She could stay awake and pass out against his chest. There is no more fear of their lives haunting her chest anymore.

He sighs quietly, before saying, “Yes, I’m okay now.”


	11. Chapter 11

She doesn’t remember most of the ordeal, but that is a small mercy. Most of it circles the back of her mind like a distant nightmare. Hanzo still steadies her in the water, watching her as if the sea witch might change her back into something monstrous.

“Amélie,” Hanzo says.

“I’m not dead,” she almost hisses, but it comes out terribly quiet. Her body is a blurry image inside her own mind. As if she’s been stretched and pronged. It feels foreign. Even the thought of Moira makes her want to see the red of her blood once more, but it stays a little ways off from where they float.

“Are you alright?” he asks tentatively.

Amélie flips her tail, straightening. One hand comes to her head, as if pushing away the slight ache inside. A jolt of nerves in her bones keep her unfocused for a moment as Hanzo still holds onto her arms. When she waves her hand dismissively, he lets go.

“I’m fine,” she looks to him. “The sea witch is dead.”

A groan echoes to their side. Both mers turn, looking to the dark skin merman slowly flicking his tail. Raising his head, he blinks at them once.

“Where is Moira?” he demands, but it comes out weakly.

“Dead,” Hanzo jerks his head to the ruined corpse.

The merman’s scales are a strange dark pattern, like that of a shark hiding in black sand. His fins are still strong but translucent. As he observes the remains of Moira, he breathes out, as if he’s held his breath for a hundred years.

“Good.” He looks back to them with a hard expression. “How did you kill her?”

Amélie looks to Hanzo as he asks this, still unsure of the details. From what little he already told her, Genji did, but he should have been near death.

“My brother’s spirit dragon stopped her curses,” he says, narrowing his brow while shifting slightly beside Amélie. His end fin flips once. “Who are you? How did you come to be transformed by Moira’s magic?”

The merman shifts in the water, surveying the kelp forest below and the shining sun above. Wearily, he looks down his own torso and tail, as if worried that they’ll disappear in a heartbeat.

“You and your brother are Shimadas. Is Sojiro still alive?”

Amélie can at least guess how this stranger came to be what they call the Reaper. Only a deal manipulated into Moira’s favor can unleash such powerful magic.

“Who are you?” Hanzo cuts his hand through the water, impatient at asking again.

The merman rubs the side of his skull before regarding them tiredly.

“Gabriel,” he finally gives. “Moira was the only one who could stop my disease from worsening. She just didn’t do it in the way that was arranged.”

“You’re a fool for thinking Moira would ever help you,” Amélie interjects. Her own hatred of Moira burns her tongue, but there is very little patience within her as well.

“Yeah,” Gabriel says flatly, “Yeah, I figured that out real quick.”

Amélie almost snarls, but Hanzo turns back to her.

“He is not our concern.” Hanzo tilts his head back. Following his line of sight, Amélie spots two figures at the surface. One of which holds a distinct, human silhouette.

Somehow, Genji and the human made it out alive and killed the sea witch. She only wants to know how.

When they both look back to the merman, he’s already swimming away. The brown patches of scales along his black tail shimmer as he goes to the bloody area of water. He circles it, confirming the dead, half octopus woman is actually Moira.

At that, the merman turns, and swims away.

“Do you know him,” Amélie asks.

Hanzo’s expression doesn’t move, but the divot in his brow refuses to lift.

“No. I don’t know how he knows my father.”

Amélie turns away from the stranger and the blood spot in the water, “How did Genji kill Moira?”

“I don’t know,” he turns to her, “Can you swim?”

She slants her gaze upon him. Flipping her tail, Amélie swims to the surface. When she spares a glance back, Hanzo is scowling as he speeds up to reach her.

“I expect my payment, Hanzo,” she says when he reaches her. “I’ve done more than was ever agreed upon in the first place.”

“You’ll receive your black pearl,” he says with finality.

*

When they reach the rocks of their little beach, Angela is barely holding on. Her eyes close slowly, and her shoulders droop. He can’t think back on everything they’ve been through just yet. He just needs to get her to shore, where she can finally rest.

He feels free, as if the chains dragging his body down to the deep sea have finally broken. There is life, and energy. He doesn’t struggle to even stay awake, much less keep Angela’s head above the water. His strength and spirit both stir inside his chest.

The brush of her toes occasionally touching his scales are familiar, but sometimes, he still sees pink when he looks at the water below her waist. He blinks it away. She’s alive, and moving just as easily as he. He helps her swim to the first rock they reach. The boulder holds all their memories of childhood and weeks spent giggling and splashing each other.

He helps her get onto the rock, which is partly submerged and keeps her within the ocean’s surface. He can move without feeling like death is creeping at the edges of his visions. For a moment, he watches her nearly curl up on herself. His fingertips reach out, and brush wet strands of hair from her face. She hugs her legs into her chest, legs that are very much not pink and covered in scales.

“Angelfish, are you doing okay?” he asks, knowing that they both are still frazzled.

She nods, scrapping her toes against the half submerged rock. The storms of the sea brew in her irises, but she never looks away from him. Maybe she wants to drink in his face without the hollow, dark bruises haunting his eyes. Or maybe, she doesn’t want him to disappear.

He finds her hand, tugging it free from her tense posture. She lets him press her palm against his mouth. Holding her still wet skin against his lips, he breathes in and out for a moment. The same hand saved his life with a brilliant glow.

They’re okay. She’s not hurt. She’s human, and he’s still a merman, but they are here. Weariness wraps around his ribcage, as if every wave they cut through just leads to another, larger one.

“Genji.”

He turns to his brother, but does not let go of Angela’s hand. Her fingers squeeze for a moment around his. Water drips down Hanzo’s black hair. Amélie surfaces as well, but both mers only let the water lap around their shoulders.

“I’m glad you’re alright,” he says, nearly startling Genji were it not for all the other impossibilities that have occurred today.

He manages a smile, “You always get me out of the worst of trouble, Hanzo.”

He might have smiled back, were it not for his next words.

“Say your last goodbye to the human. We have to return home.”

The sound of Angela’s breath stalling touches his ears. He looks back to her, and her crinkled brow. It was inevitable, but a spark of resentment flares up at Hanzo still not seeing what simply is.

“Hanzo,” Angela speaks, earning both Shimada’s attention. “You must understand that Genji and I are not parting.”

Mesmerized by her expression, Genji watches her. She leans forward slightly. A soft desperation paints her cheek bones but a quiet plea rests on her lips. If she were asking him to give up something right then, Genji would have done it in a heartbeat.

“He made a promise to me. He swore he would never leave me again.” Angela inhales slowly in a pause. “Please… will you help Genji become human?”

Hope burns for a moment. Bright, eager hope fills him as Genji looks to his brother’s face. Hanzo is hard, and unmoving. The water around his skin doesn’t ripple.

“I am giving you both a chance to say your last farewells,” he speaks like a stone chained to some human’s leg, dragging them down into the depth to silently drown. “Do that now.”

Hanzo slips back under the water, leaving Amélie to regard them silently. She only gives one nod of her head before disappearing below.  

The spark still burns within him as Genji looks to Angela. His brow is hard, determined, while Angela’s eyes hold a weary fear.

“I’m still going to see you,” he says as she slowly gathers his face in her hands. “He can’t stop me, no one can. Just until I can find a way to become human.”

Slowly, she slips to the edge of the rock before touching her forehead against his. A revered quietness falls upon the human and merman. As much as Genji fights against the notion, there is no certain future. They both are barely clinging to each other with slippery fingertips. One little wave is going to knock them apart.

“I will see you again, too,” she speaks with her eyes closed. Her breath touches his skin. “I… I should have stayed a mermaid.”

“No,” he murmurs, meekly pressing a kiss to the corner of her lips. “No. I’ll figure this out.”

As he says that, he can’t help but be crushed. All of that turmoil, all of the pain, and they are back right where they started. She’s afraid of losing him, and he’s still very much confined to his family’s name. The sea witch only gave them torture, and ripped away hope of a future.

“Don’t think about that now,” she says, lifting away. Her eyes settle gently on his gaze, but she still cradles his face. “I just want to lay with you on the sand.”

Hanzo won’t like it, but Genji doesn’t care. Angela slips off of the rock. They swim into the shallows, where Angela steps onto the beach as if it’s an alien planet. Standing is as strange as her gills were. Quietly, Genji pulls himself out of the tide. They both barely lie out of reach of the water, before Angela settles back down upon the ground. He hates the dry sand against his scales, but in this moment, it’s as heavenly as any deep water.

Wordlessly, he opens his arms. She moves into his side, with her leg touching his tail. Her head rests upon his chest as if she’s been holding it up for far too long. Encircling her, he hugs her close. They both stare up into the bleeding evening. As if it’s just another day they spent together before they both have to return to their rightful places.  

His fingers trail up and down her arm soothingly. Frustration clenches his jaw at being unable to reassure her. They fight together, again and again, but the war never ceases. The peace they seek seems beyond their reach.  

“I want to drag you back to my tub,” Angela murmurs, attempting to be lighthearted. He smiles at the thought.

“I wouldn’t stop you,” he says as her hand moves across his bare chest. Her fingertips spread across his heart. It’s the same hand that glowed blue, that protected both of them. She must be thinking of it, too.

A tremor moves through her chest. It shakes her breath and rattles her lungs. Genji clears his throat against the heaviness plaguing him. He buries his face into her hair, wanting to beg her to not despair.

A small sensation comes upon him, like a tide pulling back into the sea. A glowing light impresses itself upon Genji’s eyelids for a heartbeat. It disappears just like that, but leaves a strange stirring within him. Quite suddenly, Genji doesn’t feel the uncomfortable press of sand against his scales. The warm ground only touches soft, human flesh. He lifts his face away from Angela’s hair to look down his person.

Legs. Two, very human, legs, appear where his tail once was. For the briefest of moments, while awestruck, Genji wiggles his toes. Angela lifts her head, before gasping.

“Genji?” She sits up, lingering on the sight before turning her head in awe. Disbelief shines in both of their eyes. He can’t seem to speak until he sits up and she places a hand on his back for support.

“Angelfish, I’m human,” he says, suddenly unsteady and unsure. Yet, he knows that with his feet that he can walk and run and dance with her. He’s breathless and ecstatic all at once.

“How?” she asks, but he’s already trying to stand. He shifts to kneeling as Angela’s hands hover over him. “Wait, Genji, take this slow.”

“My spirit dragon,” he says simply while focusing on what’s familiar. Legs can bend, and fold underneath him just like his tail, at the… what is it? Knees. He has knees. “Or your magic. Or both of ours, Angela!”

“Our magic…” she murmurs, before nearly crying out his name as he straightens. For one heartbeat, he’s standing on the sand. It slips between his toes as his heels sink into the beach. He finds Angela’s gaze. A shininess stalls the worry over his person in her eyes. There’s a blooming hope taking root in both of their souls.

She did this, somehow. They made this happen. After his spirit dragon returned, something changed, but not immediately.

Genji tries to step forward, and loses balance. Slipping his arm over his shoulders, Angela steadies his person. He doesn’t fall, or falter.

“Genji, slow down! I’ve got you,” she speaks with a growing smile. “I’ll have to teach you how to walk.”

She’s tucked into his side. A moment passes as they both look down to their set of legs, side by side. She doesn’t mind his nakedness, or that she’s pressed against his bare skin.

Will she miss that part of him? Will he?

A little, yes, but his future is right in front of him with shaking steps and a gentle guide from his Angelfish.

“I can’t think of anything else I would want more,” Genji grins. Her blue gaze looks up to his, as if they have never known a gloomy storm. Excitement takes his chest at what they’re going to have, to experience together. He wants to take her in his arms, but the worry of toppling them both over stops him. Her arm supports his waist while her hand holds his wrist upon her shoulder. There is only strength, and gentle movements.

She looks as determined as he was when he first taught her how to swim.

“Genji,” a roaring voice rips through the air. Angela and Genji look over their shoulders, finding Hanzo in the shallows. A strange look passes over his brother’s face. A mixture of disgust and rage stains his cheekbones, but lingering on the edges is sadness. Resignation colors his entire person.

Hanzo’s face brings all the consequences of his actions. It hurts his heart. His family will never be his again. The ocean won’t be his own. He’ll have to learn and adjust on two legs, without the ever presence feeling of the water.

He’s not afraid. As she balances him, he finds comfort in that whatever lies ahead of him, she’ll help him weather it.

The corners of Genji’s mouth tug upward as a final goodbye. Angela’s fingertips press into his side for a moment, strengthening his ribs.  

“I chose her a long time ago, brother. This path gives me peace,” Genji speaks to the merman. “I hope one day you find your own.”

Hanzo’s expression hardens, like a stone thrown into the sea. The unmoving colors of his irises, and rising disdain attacks what the brothers once had. He inhales deeply, without the aid of gills. Genji remains firm as he stands before Hanzo as a human.

The tide laps around Hanzo’s shoulders as he bows his head. Genji takes it as his goodbye. Lifting his eyes once more, Genji knows this will be the last time he sees the blood of his own family.

“Don’t return to the clan.”

His words fall upon the sand as he disappears under the water. Genji stares at the spot his brother was just at, blinking once. He’s gone, and the next part of Genji’s life is just appearing.

“I’m sorry,” Angela murmurs into his collarbone. He shakes his head.

“It’s alright, Angelfish.” He faces back to the trees on the edge of the beach. They loom with uncertainty and unfamiliarity, but he knows the woman at his side. What lies before them will be taken on together. “I’m ready to walk.”

Her face softens like sea foam as she tightens her grip upon him. Easing him forward once, he takes the step with unsure limbs, but takes it.

“Let’s find you some clothes,” she says.

*

The house that barely held life now holds two souls. His stumbling steps are earnest, but Angela stays at his side for the week they both adjust to land. Legs are strange and wonderfully new. Quietly, Angela will stare at him when they stroll along the road or through the trees. The beauty he held as a merman transfers easily to his new form.

He starts running, and she runs with him. It almost feels childish the way they laugh and he wiggles his toes. After a day of explaining to her employer that she was needed at another hospital in an emergency surgery that was on and off again, with the helping letter of confirmation from a trusted college, Angela settles back into the life she had. Now, the evenings are spent in her own home, with Genji pulling her into his arms on the couch.

He takes to her world with wide eyes, exploring the technology and machines humans have created. He’ll stick his hand into the freezer, just to notice the cold, or flip the channels on the T.V. just to press the button. Angela takes him to an ice cream shop. He devours every flavor they have to offer as she smiles and licks her spoon. Sometimes, he’ll walk around the house without a shirt on, not used to the fabric on his upper half.

So many nights of dreaming leads to Genji falling asleep in Angela’s arms. When the morning comes, salt doesn’t tug at her eyes. Her love still remains against her, softly snoring. A few months ago, she believed him to be merely a part of her imagination.

One quiet evening, after watching Genji absentmindedly tap a finger to his kneecaps, she pulls him onto his feet. The space in the living room lets her show him how to slowly turn in each other’s arms. She has no specialty in dancing, but he slowly falls into the rhythm, and hums into her hair.

His adjustment is gradual but he eases into their new life. He is amazed by his body, and the things deep upon the land that he’s never seen. She doesn’t press intimacy upon him until he asks, and they explore each other together. After a night spent tangled in the sheets, he grins, before saying that that alone was worth becoming human. Angela shakes her head, but hides her smile.

She begins to worry that he misses his family, and the ocean, and his own tail. He never expresses this, aside from saying he wish he could have told his father goodbye. It may do more harm then good, but Angela asks him if he would want to know how to swim like a human. Genji accepts.

They return to their little beach. The rocks still hold against the waves and the sand still warms her feet. Genji doesn’t need her help in standing, but he still slips his arm around her waist.

“We don’t have to do this, Genji,” she speaks quietly.

“I want to,” he says, gazing out to the blue horizon before returning to her. “It’s still in my veins, just like it’s in yours.”

She didn’t say anything before, but he caught on quickly enough that she missed swimming. Maybe they both need this. She feared for a moment that it would feel different without the green glimmer of Genji’s scales, but nothing shifts in her chest. The memories of her own tail still circle the back of her mind.

There are nightmares that wake Angela in the night. The sea witch takes Genji, still with his dull tail and bruised, hollow eyes, in all of her writhing tentacles. Sometimes, she’s simply sinking into black waters, her pink tail useless, or even her human legs. The Reaper lingers at the edges of her dreams, as well as the monster Amélie was forced to become. Genji’s arms cradle her when she wakes up gasping. His reassurance comes as a flood. He promises again and again that Moira is dead. The reassurance of both of their safe bodies keep her calm.

Angela removes her cover-up, standing in her yellow bikini. The lapping water cools her feet as she steps into the sea. She turns, holding out her hand to Genji. He already moves in swim trunks, almost awkwardly, if not for his focus in wrapping his fingers around hers.

She steps backwards into the water, taking his other hand as to lead him. For a moment, she sees a young girl sitting on the sand. She quietly tries to build up courage to even get into the water, before a boy sticks his head out from behind one of the rocks. He asks why she isn’t swimming.

The start of their intertwined fates began so long ago, but it feels like it was yesterday.

As she eases Genji’s legs into the ocean, her encouragement gently rings. He takes in the water slowly. For a moment, sadness touches his cheekbones when he looks down to the sea lapping against his waist. He lifts his head to her concerned eyes, and smiles.

“It’s your turn to teach me, Angelfish,” he says. Angela laughs quietly as she squeezes his fingers.

“If I could do it as a 10 year old, so can you, fishboy,” she eases him out deeper, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Gently, they enter the ocean. Just as if it’s another day she’s meeting him, but, he is the foreign body this time. Her guiding hands keep his breaths calm, as his lack of gills still cause his lungs to stall.

Angela ducks her head under the surface. She falls into the ocean’s current, letting it caress and hold her body. Quiet emotion suddenly floods her throat at being able to leave this water with Genji. She’ll take him home, and he’ll sleep in her bed and they’ll hold each other.

With that love, that commitment they’ve bound to each other’s souls, a small sensation washes over Angela. Like the ocean tugging its waves back and forth. She knows what it is, but she still gasps when she opens her eyes underneath the water.

She resurfaces with the flip of her tail, and meets Genji’s already parted lips.

“Genji,” she breathes. The movement of gills along her ribs aren’t as terrifying as they once were. “Go into the water completely.”

They both discussed how exactly Genji was turned into a human when they both came upon the shore. It had to be his own magic, but it didn’t occur until after he was out of the water. Perhaps some of the sea witch’s magic affected both of them when she was killed. Angela did turn back into a human after, sealing the end of Moira’s consequences.

Now, they both know.

Genji cups her face in his hands. There is no sorrow, or regret of parting. As the very ends of her fins brush against his legs, he kisses her. Slowly, they both sink as she tastes home and salt upon his gentle lips. When their eyes open, Genji’s black hair is wavering in the water. The green scales she knows like the back of her hand reflect the sun’s light.

“Our magic,” Angela breathes. When Genji’s dragon returned to him, before going through her, they gave each other this. This gift of the land and ocean. “Our magic did this.”

“You gave me legs.” His voice moves through water as he still holds her close. “And I gave you a fishtail.”

Her arms wrap around him, mindful of his gills. In the shallows, they both stir the sand with their delicate fins while staying in each other’s grasp. She finds him once more. Promises and futures await on both of their tongues. He’s delicate and slow while she’s hungry, and alive with this joy.

She’ll never lose him again, not to the sea. He has her forever, even upon land.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Angela speaks when they part. Confusion marks his brow before she smiles. “I wanted to watch you swim as a human.”

Genji laughs, bubbling up like air floating back to the surface.

“Angela,” he says, pressing his lips once more to hers. “Come on, I want to swim with you.”

They take off to the deep, hand in hand. It’s not unlike when Genji was calming her overwhelmed self at her new, abrupt tail. They twist around each other, without sickness or affliction. The blue never ends around them. When they dive deeper to the sandy bottom, where Genji finds her a pink seashell, he doesn’t have to hurry her back to the surface. They both stay, and spread their fins in the ocean. Angela tugs on his tail when passing by, twirling through the water as if it’s her second nature. His hands take her tail, and press kisses into the pink scales with tenderness.

One, large pink seashell rests in Angela’s hand when they return to the shore. The sun is setting, turning red upon their enchanting evening. They both pull themselves up onto the sand. Out of the ocean’s reach, Genji brushes her wet bangs behind her ear.

The ocean inside of them crashes. In the same way they become mermaids, they become human upon the sand. Whatever yellow and green glow of magic infuses their bones, it keeps them together, in all parts of themselves.

They leave, and return. The land is steady under their feet just as the water holds their tails. Dancing on legs, and in the current with glittering scales is just as beautiful the first time they do it. The human and merman remain, both a part of each other’s world.

_Fin_


End file.
